And Then The rains Came

This area is still suffering from the ongoing drought. Water tables that supply drinking water to most of the cities on the south east coast of Florida are two to four feet lower than normal. Local lakes and streams are three to five feet below where they usually are this time of the year.

So when a tropical storm formed we thought this was a chance to catch up some. Tropical storms and hurricanes usually move across or up through the state dumping huge quantities if water as they go. The water dropped on the central and northern parts of Florida are what flow into the ground water tables for the wells. This water also flows into Lake Okeechobee which acts as a reservoir for the canals that feed the farms and adds hydrological pressure to the ground water to prevent salt water from entering the water tables from the ocean not to mention the water flow to the Everglades and Big Cypress swamps to the south.

But that was not be with this storm. It dissipated and moved to the north east into the Atlantic. It did however cause a tweak in our weather patterns back to partly cloudy with afternoon showers.

These pictures were taken yesterday at grassy Waters Preserve, part of the surface water supply for West Palm Beach. West Palm Breach relies mainly on surface water for it's drinking water unlike other municipalities in the area. Surface water that is getting scarcer as the days go by.

The three to four inches of rain that fell yesterday will help very little as it falls into a system of canals that are designed to carry water from west to east. And as the water fell on the eastern side of the county it did little to replenish these waters supplies along the western edges.