Although it dampened some students’ Memorial Day weekend plans, Tropical Storm Beryl delivered much-needed rain to North Florida and helped combat a series of wildfires.
Six to seven inches of rain fell, said Ludie Bond, spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service.
“We’re very glad it showed up when it did,” she said.
Before the storm, firefighters were battling 25 fires across Alachua, Putnam, Marion and Gilchrist counties, Bond said. As of Wednesday, that number had shrunk to 15.
After the rain, Bond said, North Florida dropped on the drought index from the upper-moderate range to well within the normal range.
Bond said spring months are the driest and busiest times for fires.
Local farmers have witnessed this spring’s dryness firsthand.
“It gets really dusty,” said Javier Landrua, a 21-year-old farmer at LaLa Land Organic Farms in Alachua. “It almost looks like a dust storm when the wind blows.”
The water helped his vegetables but also watered weeds and created fertile ground for insects.
“It brought new life to some of the plants,” Landrua said, “but it brought new problems, too.”
Contact Shelby Webb at swebb@alligator.org.
