© Daily News Photo/Chris SalataByron Thomas, 22, of Palm Beach, looks for fish near the Southern Boulevard bridge. Thomas, who has been fishing in and near Palm Beach his entire life, was looking to catch bait for snook fishing.
Parts of South Florida have received healthy amounts of rain, but that level of accumulation is spotty, according to Mike Bettwy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
"It hasn't exactly been widespread," Bettwy said. "If you go back and include late last week we have had several areas with over 5 inches, but at Palm Beach itself, (Palm Beach International Airport), they've had about an inch to an inch and a half."
Gabe Margasak, a spokesman with the South Florida Water Management District, called the recent rain short-term relief. "But it wasn't enough to erase the long-term drought. For Palm Beach, you are looking at a more than 20-inch rainfall deficit since the dry season began last October," Margasak said.
Forecasters are calling for a 50-60 percent chance of rain through Friday, with the chance of rain dropping over the weekend. The county has received about 18 fewer inches of rain since Jan. 1 than the historical average, according to Bettwy.
"It's going to take some time to recover because of the large deficit we were in and how severe the drought was," Bettwy said." The best case scenario would be to get the remnants of a tropical storm with a large amount of rain. And those type of scenarios are good also because they are more widespread."
Lake Okeechobee, traditionally the main surface water source for West Palm Beach and its water customers, Palm Beach and South Palm Beach, is more than 3 feet below average for this time of year, according to officials with the district. Its level rose about 1.5 inches as a result of rain that started Friday and is continuing in fits and starts through this week.
West Palm has not been able to pull water from Lake Okeechobee for weeks because the 730-square-mile lake needs to be at least 10.5 feet deep to allow water to flow out through gravity, according to Margasak. "And today we are at 9.71. You are about a foot below. That's a lot of water."
Bettwy said residents can expect afternoon thunderstorms regularly for the next few weeks. He also said computer models indicate an average amount of rainfall across the next few months.
"There's nothing that would say above average or below average" rainfall, Bettwy said. "It looks just more like a normal setup that we'd see for the summer and fall."
Planting Advice
County residents are telling extension service gardening experts that the drought is wreaking havoc on their green spaces, but they are getting some relief.
"Some people have been complaining that their yards have been looking nearly dead," said Laura Sanagorski, an environmental horticulture agent with the Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service.
"With a few days of this good rain that we've been getting, everything is greening up again," the extension agent said. Sanagorski said cutting grass short subjects it to more stress, particularly in a drought. In addition to raising the cutting height on lawn mowers, Sanagorski advises residents to replace annuals with drought-tolerant perennials. Beach sunflower (Helianthus debilis) and blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella) are colorful, drought-resistant plants that look best when they don't receive any supplemental irrigation, Sanagorski said.
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