{"id":407031,"date":"2026-09-22T09:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T09:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407031\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T09:47:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T09:47:00","slug":"water-officials-may-extend-water-shortage-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407031\/","title":{"rendered":"Water officials may extend water shortage order"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Southwest Florida Water Management District is expected to consider extending its Phase III Modified Water Shortage Order during a board meeting Tuesday, as the region continues to face a significant rainfall deficit.<\/p>\n<p>The district says summer storms have helped stabilize conditions, but they have not been enough to erase the long-term shortage. According to the district, the rainfall deficit grew slightly from 15.2 inches in July to 15.4 inches in August.<\/p>\n<p>The latest <a href=\"https:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/CurrentMap\/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?FL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">U.S. Drought Monitor map shows moderate to extreme drought conditions<\/a> still affecting much of the greater Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n<p>Some communities, including Brooksville, Lakeland and parts of Tampa, have seen heavy rain and even flooding in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>However, water officials say the rainfall has not been widespread or consistent enough to significantly reduce drought conditions across the district.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bigger issue is the long-term deficit,\u201d the Southwest Florida Water Management District said in a statement. \u201cDistrictwide monthly rainfall totals were below average every month since November 2024 except for May 2025 and May 2026. Given consistent, below-average rainfall, we need consistent above-average rainfall to relieve the long-term deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Florida\u2019s rainy season officially ends in the coming weeks, raising concerns that the region may not receive enough rain to make up the deficit before the drier months begin.<\/p>\n<p>The district\u2019s board is expected to discuss the water shortage order and possible extension at Tuesday\u2019s meeting in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Drought_Monitor-3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"hashed-image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Southwest Florida Water Management District is expected to consider extending its Phase III Modified&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,7083,1563,28,7086,276,2635,7088,115,1338,596,1911,4135,135,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-407031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-citrus-county","tag-environment","tag-florida","tag-hernando-county","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-jason-lanning","tag-manatee-county","tag-news","tag-pasco-county","tag-pinellas-county","tag-polk-county","tag-sarasota-county","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}