Only subtle improvements from last week’s rain

Drought monitor

ORLANDO, Fla. – Despite last week’s rain, it did little to put a dent in the overall drought situation. In areas that were largely left out of rain, the drought has worsened.

Southwestern Marion and western Sumter counties are now considered to be in an extreme drought.

While the Orlando area picked up nearly an inch of rain, most of Central Florida remains in severe drought status. There was, however, subtle improvements in the drought near the coast. Parts of Brevard and Volusia counties improved from severe to moderate drought status.

The drought monitor takes into account the rain through Tuesday. The drought update is then released every Thursday morning by the USDA. For the year, the region remains 4-7 inches below normal.

Rainfall for the year

April to date has been much better in the rainfall department.

April to date rainfall

For the state of Florida, the coverage of severe drought status dropped from 53% to 46%.

The extreme drought category, however, expanded from 1% to 4%. Below is the drought monitor from last week.

Last week's drought monitor

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About the Author:

Jonathan Kegges joined the News 6 team in June 2019 as the Weekend Morning Meteorologist. Jonathan comes from Roanoke, Virginia where he covered three EF-3 tornadoes and deadly flooding brought on by Hurricanes Florence and Michael.