Recent rains helpful

Lots of rain fell during the first week of December, but it wasn't enough to erase the effects of four years of drought, said Robyn Felix, spokeswoman for the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

"We did get between 2 -to -3 inches of rain, which is a lot for the month of December," said Felix. "But, November was an extremely dry month."

Only .03 inches of rain was recorded for November. The average rainfall in November is 1.9 inches.

"We have rain gauges throughout the 16-county area," said Felix. "There are four rain gauges in Highlands County. From Dec. 1 through Dec. 7, the average (reading of those four gauges) was 2.66 inches."

The historic rainfall average for the month of December is 1.7 inches.

Water levels may rise and fall but the district urges water conservation year-round.

Speaking of water levels, the lake levels have not really been affected as yet by the rains, said Erin McCarta, lake management assistant with the Highlands County Natural Resources Department.

"But we're into the winter which is typically our dry season," she said. "We are expecting to have a wet winter because of El Nino.

"I would expect the biggest effect we'll see is the lake levels will be maintained. They probably won't be as low at the start of spring season. It all depends on how wet the winter is."

Water restrictions

Watering restrictions for the southern portion of the district remain at one day per week, as had been previously reported.

As of Sept. 29, the Governing Board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District extended modified Phase II severe water shortage restrictions through Feb. 28, 2010. These restrictions were initially declared Jan. 9, 2007, according to www.watermatters.org .

These restrictions are not scheduled to expire until the end of February, unless conditions cause the board to extend them again, she said.

"The board will vote on Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties," she said. "Those have higher restrictions to expire in December, so they have to vote on them."

Lawn and landscape watering remains limited to a once per week schedule.

If your address or house number ends in 0 or 1, watering is only allowed on Monday. If the address ends in 2 or 3, water only on Tuesday. If the address ends in 4 or 5, water only on Wednesday. If the address ends in 6 or 7, water only on Thursday. If the address ends in 8 or 9 or is not discernable, water only on Friday.

Unless the town, city or county in which you live has stricter hours in effect, properties less than two acres in size may water before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m. Properties two acres or larger may water before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.

Unless the town, city or county in which you live further restricts this water use, low volume watering, (micro-irrigation, soaker hoses, hand watering, etc.) of flower beds, shrubs and other non-lawn plants is allowed on any day at any time, if needed.

The Keetch Byram Drought Index was quite low Monday, at 300 to 399 for Highlands County.

"We were in the neighborhood of about 600 before the rains," said Tim Elder, forest area supervisor for the Florida Division of Forestry. "The rains we had last week brought us to where we should be this time of year as far as fire risk conditions."

People should continue to be cautious when burning no matter what the conditions are, said Elder.

"If you start them and you're responsible for it then you'll still end up paying for it," he said.

"The Keetch-Byram drought index (KBDI) is a continuous reference scale for estimating the dryness of the soil and duff layers. The index increases for each day without rain (the amount of increase depends on the daily high temperature) and decreases when it rains," according to www.fl-dof.com . "The scale ranges from 0 (no moisture deficit) to 800."