WCA – Greater Everglades Conditions  Weekly Update – October 13, 2009

 

Rainfall:

Rainfall in the Greater Everglades (see Raindar image and below) was very light, particularly in the northern conservation areas.  The highest rainfall occurred in WCA-3A:   

 

Rain:                            WCA-1:          0.02 in             WCA-3A:       0.50 in

                                    WCA-2A:     >0.01 in             WCA-3B:        0.37 in

                                    WCA-2B:        0.08 in             ENP:               0.43 in

 

Water Conservation Areas:

With this week’s high pan evaporation of 1.61” (see srs pdf), stages declined throughout the Greater Everglades in patterns more typical of winter than the wet season (see WCA Stages spreadsheet and below):

 

Stage Change:             WCA-1:         -0.09 ft             WCA-3A:        -0.15 ft

                                    WCA-2A:      -0.08 ft             WCA-3B:        -0.07 ft

                                    WCA-2B:      -0.19 ft              NESRS:           -0.07 ft

 

Water depths are now dropping so the tree island inundation durations appear to be in their declining phases (see WCA Stages spreadsheet).  Marsh water stages in WCA-1 have dropped below zone A2 and are 0.1 ft into zone B.  In WCA-3A stages have re-entered the upper transition zone after weeks of exceeding this zone.  Stages in WCA-2A are about 0.8 ft above regulation (see Reg schedule).

 

Inundation of the conservation area greatly resembles that of a month ago (see Water depths map).  Greater Everglades depths are lower now than a month ago and a year ago (see SFWDAT map).

 

No fires have been reported in the Greater Everglades.

 

Everglades National Park (ENP) and Florida Bay:

Light rain fell across ENP wetlands and Florida Bay last week.  The basin-wide, spatially-averaged weekly RAINDAR totals were 0.5” and 0.2” for the ENP and C-111 basins, respectively (see Raindar).

 

Stages declined across ENP wetland stations last week (see Stages pdf).  Water levels in Shark River Slough and at the Taylor Slough Bridge declined 0.6” and 3.0”, respectively.  To the south, water levels in the ENP panhandle and in Craighead Basin declined 1.4” and 1.3”, respectively.

 

Salinity was stable or declined across Florida Bay last week (see Salinity pdf).  In the near shore eastern Bay, salinity remained at 8 psu in Long Sound but declined from 25 psu to 20 psu at the Little Madeira Bay platform.  Further into the Bay in Duck Key Basin, salinity remained at 31 psu.  The 30 day moving average salinity at the Taylor River platform (used for tracking the Florida Bay MFL) declined slightly from 0.8 psu to 0.7 psu, with the daily mean salinity at 0.7 psu.  In the north central Bay, salinity was steady near 11 psu in McCormick Creek and declined from 19 psu to 13 psu in Terrapin Bay.  At the central Bay platform in Whipray Basin, salinity was stable at 38 psu.  To the west, in the upstream reaches of Shark River Slough, salinity was fresh (< 0.5 psu).

 

For questions about Florida Bay, please contact Kevin Cunniff (kcunniff@sfwmd.gov ).

 


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