Severe Drought worsens, burn bans in effect

Our drought is getting worse and these cold fronts are playing a huge role.

Meteorologist Katie Walls explains that cold air is dry air. So behind each cold front, that drier air evaporates moisture from everything. Your skin may be feeling it, but so do our plants and vegetation.

Plus, the fronts we've had this winter haven't had much in the way of rainfall. Our rain gauge here at the Fox 4 studios has only picked up 0.51" of rain so far in January; that's about 40% of normal.

The latest USGS Drought Monitor has nearly all of SWFL in "Severe" Drought now. (The levels range from Abnormally Dry to Moderate Drought, Severe Drought, then Extreme Drought and Exceptional.)

Because of the very dry conditions, all counties, except for Lee, are under Burn Bans. Collier County enacted a Burn Ban on Friday.

While there are certain cities, like Cape Coral, that have implemented their own Burn Bans, Lee County itself does not have one in effect. I reached out to inquire when one could be enacted. The Communications Director told Fox 4 that the Lee County Board of Commissioners has it on their agenda for Tuesday morning's meeting.

Fox 4 will be following the outcome of that meeting closely.