WCA - Everglades
Conditions Update (Oct. 30, 2007)
Rainfall:
Rainfall
throughout the WCAs and the northern Everglades
National Park has ranged
from 0.7 to 1.1, with higher amounts falling in the more southern WCA-3B and
ENP (see Raindar.gif).
Rainfall in WCAs 1, 2a, 2b, and 3a was 0.7 to 0.8. Pan
evaporation for the week was slightly less than rainfall, which produced a net
increase of water for the WCAs.
Water Conservation Areas:
Water
depths rose under 0.1 with the rainfall in the Everglades
(see WCA_stages.xls) except
for WCA-2B, where water levels declined slightly (-0.06). The decreases
that were occurring over the last few weeks at the 2-17 and 62 gages have
ceased, rising very slightly. Water depths at most gages exceed 1.25
feet, but average conservation area depths vary a lot (see WCA_stages.xls), ranging from 1.3 in
WCA 3B to 3.4 in WCA 2B. Stages in WCA-1 are within Zone A2, those in
WCA-2A remain well above regulation, and stages in WCA-3 now are just within
regulation (see WCA_reg_stages.doc).
Everglades National
Park:
Rainfall
was patchy (see Raindar.gif) but higher than the previous week across ENP and Florida Bay.
Wetland stations received between 0.8 - 3.4 of rainfall, and marine stations
(excluding Taylor River and Whipray
Basin) received between
0.6 - 2.5 of rainfall over the 7 day period. The spatially averaged
basin-wide accumulation for last week was 1.0.
Rainfall
kept ENP wetland water levels mostly static (see ENP Stages.pdf). The water
level at Shark River Slough (P33) decreased by 0.1 over the 7 day period and
remained low for this time of year (end of the rainy season). Southern
stations depths increased by 0.6 and 0.8 at Taylor Slough
Bridge and the ENP
panhandle (EVER6), respectively. Craighead Pond water level was unchanged
last week. All three of these southeastern Everglades
stations had higher water levels than at this time last year.
Salinity
(see ENP Salinity.pdf) remained
low and stable across Florida
Bay last week.
Strong flow from the Everglades down to the Bay through both Trout Creek and Taylor River
allowed salinity to remain in the single digits (with a brief mid-week
reversal). Salinity at the Little Madeira Bay mouth platform remained in
the low teens last week. Salinity in the Taylor River
ponds remained below 1 psu over the entire week. In the north-central Bay
areas, Terrapin Bay and McCormick Creek salinity
decreased slightly to below 11 psu and 8 psu, respectively. In central Florida Bay,
Whipray Basin remained below 30 psu for another
week. In the Shark River Slough outflow at Tarpon Bay,
salinity remained low, dropping below 1 psu.
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