As dry as it's been, it was a delight to go through the data for June and see that we had over 370 reports on a daily basis, even though most of those were 0.00" for a good portion of the month.  However, Mother Nature decided to take some pity on Florida, and the summer rains have started to pop up across the state with a vengeance. There were reports of severe thunderstorms across the entire state with heavy downpours, frequent lightning, hail, and strong winds.

Unfortunately, these rains were not widespread enough to help with our drought situation, so for the second month in a row, I will ask that you continue to report those 0.00" values and to also submit your own personal experiences with the extremely dry conditions to the Drought Impact Report.

If you're unsure of what to say in your report, you can take a look at the training slideshow for drought impacts.   

If you made an observation this 4th of July weekend, you may have noticed that Florida was highlighted as part of the ongoing CoCoRaHS State Climate Series. But if you were like me and took an extended holiday weekend, then you missed it. But don't fear! The guys at CoCoRaHS HQ have archived it here, along with the rest of the series. 

The extra effort you're taking to make sure that your observations are correct has really paid off. Not one observation from Florida was flagged for the month of June. So, I'll say it again: thank you for taking that extra minute as you enter your report. Even with our clean record from last month, if you receive an email from me with the subject line 'Question About Your Recent CoCoRaHS Observation', please take a moment to answer me back. And if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Here are the CoCoRaHS rainfall totals for June from some select CoCoRaHS stations across the state. Notice that the color key has changed from the last newsletter.

Conditions have deteriorated across the state since the June 7th release of the National Drought Monitor. At that time, only 7% of the state was listed as being in exceptional drought, meaning widespread crop/pasture loss and shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells, creating water emergencies. When the monitor was released on the 22nd of June, that percentage had increased to 22%. As of July 7th, we've seen that number decrease to 17%, mainly due to conditions improving along the southeast coast.  There was a little improvement in the northeast portion of the state, but the Panhandle has not seen enough rainfall to help ease the drought conditions.

The National Drought Monitor is updated weekly, so you can always check the most recent conditions here: National Drought Monitor.

Over the last year, some of our local/county coordinators have moved on to different states or had other circumstances come up that prevent them from continuing as coordinators. While I would love to be able to help out every new and current volunteer across the state, my poor car would hate all the miles of driving to and fro, so I need your help. If you're interested in helping out in your local community or county as a CoCoRaHS Coordinator, please send me an email so that I can go over some of the duties that our local coordinators take on. Even if there's already a coordinator in your county, please feel free to ask about helping them out as well.   

Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm! If at any time you have questions about CoCoRaHS, reading your rain gauge, or finding a location to setup your rain gauge, please feel to contact a Florida CoCoRaHS Coordinator. We are lucky enough to have regional support from National Weather Service offices across the state, as well as county/local help from several CoCoRaHS volunteers.
 

Melissa
Melissa Griffin
Florida CoCoRaHS State Coordinator
Assistant State Climatologist