Long term forecast looks very dry

TAMPA, FL -- It's been a dry winter, and it looks like spring won't be any different.

The 90-day outlook has come out, and the odds are favorable we won't have much rain through most of May.

This isn't really all that unusual though, as March through May is usually our driest time of the year, with May being our biggest brush fire month.  But, with the lack of rain and the freezes we had during the winter, I truly believe this will be an exceptionally tough year for fires.

Will the drought end? What about hurricane predictions?

Our rainy season usually begins in early June, but it's way too early to determine just how the summer months will shape up. We need to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we receive a significant amount of rainfall, as our water supply is reaching historically low records.

Early hurricane predictions predict a near normal or slightly above normal hurricane season. Unfortunately, long range hurricane forecasting is generally useless, and given our limited success in hurricane predictions, I believe it will be a long time (if ever) before we can give the public useful information on the upcoming season months in advance.

We've had VERY active seasons where the hurricanes all stayed in the middle of the Atlantic. We've also had very SLOW seasons where the first storm didn't even form until Mid August. We all remember THAT year.  It was 1992 and the hurricane was Andrew.  The number of storms was below normal, but obviously, the damage was major because we were struck with a Category 5 hurricane.

So while we wait and see how the spring and summer months unfold, get out and enjoy the beautiful Florida weather.