July Rains Relieve Northeast Florida of Abnormally Dry Conditions

Recent rainfall throughout the St. Johns River Water Management District’s 18-county region, which includes Flagler County, has relieved portions of northeast Florida that had been abnormally dry after below-average rainfall in June. Indian River County was an exception, where for the first time in seven months the county received above-average rainfall last month, relieving near drought conditions, as reported in the U.S. Drought Monitor.

A full report outlining June hydrologic conditions was presented at the District’s Governing Board meeting Tuesday. Highlights include:

Rainfall

• Districtwide, June rainfall averaged 4.34 inches, which is 2.4 inches below the average for the month.
• Indian River County had the most rainfall, with a countywide average of 9 inches.
• Duval County received the least amount of rainfall at only 2.2 inches.
• Districtwide, the cumulative rainfall total for the past 12 months is 50.40 inches, which is 0.61 inches below the long-term average.

Groundwater

• Upper Floridan aquifer conditions (groundwater levels) at the end of June were mostly in the normal range across the District, except for eastern Duval and northern St. Johns counties, where conditions were in the low or very low range.
• Groundwater levels expressed as a single Districtwide index are at the 74th percentile Districtwide. This means that since 1980, aquifer levels have been higher than they currently are about 26 percent of the time.

Spring flows

• The mean monthly flow at Silver Springs decreased to 620 cubic feet per second (cfs), or 400 mgd, which is a 43 cfs decrease from May’s mean, but still in the normal range for this time of year.
• At the Blue Spring station in Volusia County, the mean monthly flow was 147 cfs, or 95 mgd.
• At Rock Springs, the monthly mean flow decreased 1 cfs to 57 cfs (37 mgd), which is in the normal range for June.
• Mean monthly flow at Wekiwa Springs decreased to 69 cfs (45 mgd), which is in the high range for the time of year.

To learn more about rainfall totals and other hydrologic data collected, visit sjrwmd.com.

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