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Drought Hearkens To 1998

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Antonio Neal, left, and Jeffery Jones look over a fuel dock left high and dry at the Rainbow Marina off of Lake Eloise in March. The fuel dock would normally be surrounded by four feet of water.

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By NEIL JOHNSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 27, 2007

Updated: 12/26/2007 11:55 pm

TAMPA - Going into 2008, Florida is entering its second year of drought with forecasters seeing no end in sight.

The start of the current dry spell is similar to the beginning of the most recent drought - the worst in Florida since the 1950s.

Like the current drought, the 1998-2001 dearth of rain began at the end of a year that started with above normal rainfall but saw rain taper off to well below normal in the final few months.

A La Nina, a cooling of water in the Pacific that decreases rain in Florida during the winter and spring, was firmly in place in 1999, the most recent drought's first full year.

In 2007, the first full year of the current drought, a La Nina formed that forecasters say will last at least into spring 2008.

This doesn't mean we'll see a repeat of the 1998-2001 drought, but meteorologists also do not see anything to end the current situation.

"We're on our way. If La Nina doesn't go away this summer, this drought could really continue," said Ben Nelson, state meteorologist.

State Climatologist David Zierden doesn't offer any rosier outlook.

"If this one continues, and it looks like it will, it has the potential to be as bad as the last one," he said.

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