Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Water Year 2025 Summary

Completely satisfied New 12 months! Properly, completely satisfied new water yr, that’s. Like others in South Florida, our conservation workforce marks the calendar by the annual rise and fall of water ranges, and June 1 marked the primary day of our new hydrologic yr. It’s no coincidence that June 1 was additionally the primary day of hurricane season—our hydrologic yr coincides with the beginning of the wet season, a season fueled by day by day rainfall and waves of tropical moisture.

We’re now a full month into “Water 12 months 2026.” This previous June delivered 9.8 inches of rain at our official Sanctuary rain gauge, though rainfall throughout the area was patchy, and different components of our area received rather more rain. This was 15 p.c beneath our June common of 11.5 inches. Water ranges within the swamp are simply beginning to come again as much as fill the deepest components of the swamp, and as summer season rains proceed, we’ll see water ranges rapidly rise.

Taking this chance to look again on the previous yr, Water 12 months 2025 was marked by a “moist” moist (or wet) season and a “dry” dry season. From June 1, 2024, to Could 31, 2025, we acquired a complete of 65.1 inches of rain, which was barely larger than our 66-year common of 60.0 inches. Whereas the entire annual rainfall was typical, the distribution of rainfall throughout the yr was uncommon. Month-to-month rainfall totals averaged 33% larger than common in our rainiest months (June via October), largely as a result of tropical programs we noticed in June, August, and October.

The rain stopped abruptly in November, and month-to-month rainfall totals from November via April have been 61% decrease than common. The dearth of dry season rainfall, coupled with the over-drainage in current many years that has been described by our analysis workforce, resulted in water ranges falling in a short time via the winter and spring months.

Quickly falling water ranges made foraging tougher for wading birds throughout this yr’s nesting season (notably later within the spring), however good feeding circumstances early within the yr resulted in a fairly good Wooden Stork nesting effort in Southwest Florida. We’ll go away that as a little bit of a teaser and plan to offer an annual Wooden Stork nesting replace subsequent month!