Drought

“The further south you go, the drier it is,” State Forester Rick Dolan said. “Southwest Florida is the driest part of the state, around the Fort Myers area, very dry right now.”

Southwest Florida's wildfire season has begun and this year may be worse than most as NOAA and NWS models predict drought, winds and cold temperatures

While water consumption in Fort Myers was at its highest in 2022 with an average 8.8 million gallons utilized each day, the 2023 peak season is proving to be even higher. Additionally, in the past week, the National Drought Mitigation Center has categorized the Fort Myers area as experiencing “moderate drought” and “abnormally dry” conditions.

The Sunshine State is so vast that while Hurricane Ian saturates Southwest Florida the Panhandle’s parched forests are ready to burn. The Florida Forestry Service is listing the wildfire threat in Northwest Florida “critical” due to a combination of low humidity, high pressure to the north of the state, and very dry soil.

A lack of rain plus higher than normal temperatures sets the scene for drought, and the first obvious sign of a drought is wildfires. Counties in Southwest Florida and the Panhandle are at the start of that cycle right now. Early this month the Drought Monitor, released weekly by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Agriculture, showed nearly half of Florida under a drought, up about 10 percent since February. Despite one rainy afternoon last week, the driest areas include a broad swath of Southwest Florida

Most of Florida was in a drought just one month ago. But on Thursday, the U.S. Drought Mitigation Center published a report stating there are now no areas…

Record rainfall led to a soggy week for much of Southwest Florida. Portions of Collier, Hendry, and Lee Counties went from drought to deluge in just…

More than 140 wildfires are burning in the state of Florida today. It's a "red flag warning" day in inland portions of West Central Florida today, which...

Governor Rick Scott is declaring a state of emergency as more than a hundred wildfires flare across the state. With drought conditions spreading and...

The Florida Forest Service says more than 100 active wildfires are burning across the state right now.