South Florida's drought is on the way out

"It's been a dry year - most of the region has been in either severe or extreme drought conditions since early spring. But as of Monday, there's only a small sliver of northeastern Palm Beach County that remained in moderate drought for the year to date. South Florida has benefited from a shift in the prevailing winds that allows thunderstorms to soak the east coast instead of the west coast of the state."

""It is much less (of a dry area) than it was a couple weeks ago and even a few months ago," said Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist at the Miami office of the National Weather Service. The slow tropics have not been a factor in the drought, Hadi said. The patterns of the prevailing wind direction have been the source of both the drought and the new surge of rain, he said."

"Earlier in the year, there was a very strong ridge of high pressure (the Bermuda High) across the area. It created strong easterly winds, pushing thunderstorms to the west coast of Florida. "However, within the last month we've seen a lot of rainfall on the east coast as well ... so we've seen an improvement," Hadi said. Things changed when a trough settled over the eastern U.S., weakening the easterly Bermuda High winds, and allowing storms to soak the east coast."

South Florida experienced a prolonged dry period with most of the region in severe or extreme drought since early spring, leaving only a small sliver of northeastern Palm Beach County in moderate drought year-to-date. A shift in prevailing winds redirected thunderstorms toward the east coast, improving rainfall there while the west coast remained drier over recent weeks. A trough over the eastern U.S. weakened the Bermuda High, altering wind patterns and allowing increased east-coast precipitation. The weakened Bermuda High also reduced hurricane threats by permitting storms such as Gabrielle, Humberto and Imelda to curve northward away from land.

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