What changed

Florida remained widely dry in the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, but the statewide drought and dryness footprint eased from the prior week. The Sept. 22 map reported 87.74% of the state in D0-D4, down from 90.35% a week earlier. D1-D4 drought covered 50.83%, down from 54.52%. D2-D4 severe drought or worse covered 12.79%, down from 13.71%. D3-D4 extreme drought or worse was unchanged at 2.01%.

The monitor estimated 11,045,116 people in Florida drought areas. Drought.gov rounded that figure to 11.0 million Florida residents and listed total area in drought at 50.8% of the state.

The authoritative Florida U.S. Drought Monitor page is here: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?FL.

What it means for the shop

For Florida landscaping companies, the verified statewide signal is dry conditions, not a verified local rule change. The U.S. Drought Monitor’s historical-impact examples say D0 can mean increased landscape irrigation and voluntary water conservation requests, D1 can include possible burn bans and browning trees and bushes, and D2 can include dormant lawns and landscapes and implemented burn bans.

Those examples are not proof that a specific lawn is dormant, that a specific county has a burn ban, or that a specific customer can water more often. The Drought Monitor says it focuses on broad-scale conditions and that local conditions may vary.

Drought.gov says Florida’s five Water Management Districts monitor drought using surface water flows, groundwater levels, regional water supply and precipitation. It also says water shortage orders may be issued when water is insufficient or temporary reductions are needed to protect resources. That makes district, county and municipal checks the practical next step before changing irrigation schedules or promising customers extra watering.

What remains unknown

The supplied pages do not identify which Florida counties or metro areas are in D1, D2 or D3 in usable text. They also do not establish any new or current local landscape-irrigation restrictions by water management district, county or municipality.

The supplied pages do not establish active local burn bans or landscape-debris restrictions in affected Florida areas. They also do not verify current local observations of dormant lawns, browning trees or increased irrigation-service demand.

For now, treat the statewide map as a planning trigger. Check the customer’s water management district and local government rules before setting irrigation schedules, advising on watering allowances, or scheduling debris-burning or disposal work.

Evidence

Sources

  1. Primary authority
    droughtmonitor.unl.edu: Florida | U.S. Drought Monitor
  2. Primary authority
    droughtmonitor.unl.edu: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Data/pdf/current/current_FL_cat.pdf
  3. Primary authority
    drought.gov: National Drought Status
  4. Primary authority
    drought.gov: Florida
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