WCA -
(May 27, 2008)
Rainfall:
Most of the
rain this past week was confined to the northern reaches of the Greater
Everglades (see attached gif) and is
reflected in the totals shown below. Despite the relatively high rainfall
totals, only WCA-1 exceeded the average weekly total ET of 2.2 (see srs.pdf).
WCA-1:
2.94
WCA-3A: 1.22
WCA-2A:
1.42
WCA-3B: 1.19
WCA-2B: 1.95
ENP:
0.39
.
Water Conservation Areas:
After
some four weeks of good recession rates in support of wading bird nesting,
recent rains, especially in the north, have caused water depths to increase by
as much as a quarter of a foot. Recession rates were poor or fair almost
everywhere and water depths remain above optimum (optimum = 0.1 0.79) for
foraging by wading birds (see attached WCA
Stages.xls). Stages increased throughout the WCAs, but continue to decline
in ENP. Stages are slightly above regulation in WCA-1, well above Regulation in
WCA-2A and slightly below regulation in WCA-3A (see WCA_reg_stages.doc).
Rainfall
was patchy across ENP and FL Bay last week, with 7 d accumulations across the
wetland and marine stations measuring between 0.1 0.7. This spatially
variable pattern was reflected in last weeks trends for ENP wetland water
levels, down across much of the area except in the panhandle where rainfall
totals were higher (1 2 based on RAINDAR estimates). Water levels
dropped by a meager 0.3 again this week in Shark River Slough (station P33,
recording 0.2 of rain for the week), which is not much considering the high
temps/ET of late.
Modest rainfall
buffered the persistent strong southerly winds and high rates of evaporation
last week, allowing salinity in much of
Wildlife:
Nothing new
to report.
Back to Lake Okeechobee Operations Main Page
Back to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers LORSS Homepage