Lake Okeechobee: Lake-O is back to normal mode

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 10, 2008

15.09 ft.

Decreases for the first time since Fay.

[DanKellFla]

OK, I admit it. The Corps is doing the right thing.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 11, 2008

15.11 ft.

Back up!

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 16, 2008

15.16 ft.

[Sanibel]

I can tell you they are releasing lake water because the San Carlos Bay off the Caloosahatchee River out here is root beer brown. The sea grass and inshore sea life depends on a cycle of summer rain water and winter salt water.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 18, 2008

15.16 ft.

No change.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 19, 2008

15.15 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 20, 2008

15.11 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 22, 2008

15.07 ft.

Continues to go down very slowly.

[StormTracker]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 25, 2008

15.02 ft.

Hurakan, thanks for keeping this updated! Looks like a title change(update)may be in store if and when Lake-O falls short of the 15.00 ft. mark!

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 26, 2008

15.01 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Sep 29, 2008

14.95 ft.

First dip below 15 ft in weeks. I moved the thread to USA Weather because its original purpose has now transitioned to monitoring the lake level, not a Talkin' Tropics objective.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Oct 10, 2008

14.96 ft.

[HURAKAN]

South Florida district board votes to make watering limits permanent

I agree. There is no real need in South Florida to water your lawn more than twice a week. Normally in the rainy season you don't need to water your lawn, period, since we usually get rained almost every day. Just this month, in 10 days my rain gauge has measured 9.93 inches of rain. Almost an inch of rain per day and it's expected to rain today and this weekend.

[jasons2k]

I don't think it's that simple. Yet another kneejerk reaction. And then to find out they increase rates with lower usage?

Yes, most lawns can get by with twice-a-week watering. But a lof of plants need more than that. If we have no rain and I don't water my hibiscus plants almost every day, they wilt. If I let them go for more than a few days, they will die. What's next, are we going to ban certain plants because they use "too much" water?

I agree with some of the comments on the actual article page, but they tend to get into politics so I'll just say I disagree with the mentality of imposing certain restrictions on people's lives. The proverbial "slippery slope" if you ask me.

[Shoshana]

Here in Austin they have a lot of info about planting stuff that is native and doesn't need much water. We've been on water restrictions for months and we can only run sprinklers 2x a week at night. We can hand water anytime tho.

[DanKellFla]

jasons, Try Xeriscaping. (If I spelled that right.) That is taking advantage of the native plants that naturally grow in your region. It saves water and the plants are sturdier than the "imports." The choice of plants that work in Florida is very large. I don't know about your region of Texas. And, it just isn't about imposing restrictions. It is also about saving a limited resouce in South Florida. The rate increase is a terrible idea. But, water restrictions can save us from having to build a new water plant. I would be happy to avoid that expense.

I haven't watered my grass in months. When the dry season starts, I will water once a week. I used to overwater my lawn and that made for grass that wasn't tolerant of dry periods and I had dollarweed that just wouldn't go away.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Oct 14, 2008

14.99 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Oct 16, 2008

14.97 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Oct 20, 2008

14.91 ft.

Lets see what 91L can do about Lake O's level in the next few days.