Impacts of hurricane season rainfall are balanced by drier conditions

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Map of Annual rainfall for January 2107 to December 2017

A map illustrates rainfall across the St. Johns River Water Management District.

PALATKA, Fla., Jan. 9, 2018 — While 12-month rainfall totals are still above average throughout the St. Johns River Water Management District’s 18-county service area, December rainfall was below average, especially through the southeastern corridor from southern Lake County through Orlando to Daytona.  A full report outlining hydrological conditions was presented at the district’s January Governing Board meeting Tuesday.

“Florida is known for this type of volatility when it comes to rainfall, which makes water conservation that much more important,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Dr. Ann Shortelle. “We’d like to encourage homeowners to skip every other week of irrigation during this season when lawns go dormant and need less water. Collectively, homeowners in north and east-central Florida could help save more than 1 billion gallons of water.”

  • The counties with the highest rainfall for the month included Nassau with 2.74 inches, Duval with 2.64 inches and Alachua with 2.07.
  • When looking at annual rainfall totals, 12-month rainfall totals are nearly 7 inches above average across the district.
  • Upper Floridan aquifer conditions at the end of December were in the high range except in the north, and portions of central Florida, which were in the normal range.

More information about the district’s hydrological conditions can be found online at www.sjrwmd.com. To learn more about landscape irrigation and skipping a week of watering during winter, visit sjrwmd.com/SkipAWeek.