Drought, wildfire threat continue as Central Florida heats up

Drought
The moderate drought has expanded further north and much of the region south of Orlando is under a severe drought.

In fact, we only had a trace rain in April and March was also dry only registering 0.10 inch. This has been the driest stretch in 121 years, since 1896.

Wildfires
Fires have ramped up since March. The vegetation is extremely dry and the low levels of humidity, as well as windy days, have helped spark and spread fires.

 WILDFIRES THEN AND NOW

Since Jan. 1 through April 23, almost 150,000 acres have burnt in Florida in almost 2,000 fires.

On average, the heart of wildfire season happens in May and June. Under the severe drought and temperatures quickly rising, people should follow the authorities’ instructions and avoids burns.

INTERACTIVE DROUGHT MAP - HOW BAD IS IT?

WHERE ARE THE CURRENT FIRES AND BURN BANS?

Heat
The heat is also causing our lakes and pools to have a high evaporation rate. The habitat living in these lakes are feeling the effects of lower lake levels and our pockets will also feel the low pool levels.

April will end as the 14 consecutive month with hotter than normal temperatures. This means the last time we had cooler than normal month in Orlando was February 2016.

Remember, the average is a number expressing the central value in a set of data, calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number. It does not state where we should be.

This trend is set to continue as we move into the summer’s months, shown by long term meteorological models.

We definitely felt a warmer winter. In November 2016, the lowest high temperature lowest high temperatures was 68. Lowest high in December was 62. In January, only two days registered highs at 55 degrees, those were the lowest highs and the lowest low remained above freezing at 36 degrees. February did not improve much, as the lowest temperature was recorded at 43. We did have a late season cold spell on March 16, temperatures dropped to 38 degrees.

VIDEO: 2016 WEATHER SUMMARY

VIDEO: CLIMATE CHANGE AND ALLERGENS

As the climate changes there will be more effects to our temperatures, lack or excessive rainfall and sea level rise. This will lead to massive (gradual) migrations, billions of dollars in loses, probable health and food crisis.

      Videos de información en español por nuestra meteoróloga Irene Sans 

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