As forecast, rain has fallen across our area, and we have more on the way over the next few days! Exact Track 4D displayed yellow and orange this morning, which indicated moderate to heavy rain and showers will be possible as we head into the afternoon.
The good news is the rainfall is very beneficial, but is it enough to get our area out of the drought?
First, let’s look at what has fallen and see how much more rainfall is expected over the next few days.
Several spots have picked up over an inch of rain over the past two days, especially across Columbia, Duval, St. Johns and Putnam counties.
This is in part due to the storms we saw over the weekend, along with pockets of moderate to heavy rain this morning.
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, the front responsible for the rainfall will stall to our south. An area of low pressure will move along the front on Wednesday, bringing with it the potential for moderate to heavy rain to our south.
The highest totals will generally be south of St. Augustine. It’s important to note that areas in Georgia are not expecting much rain through the rest of the week.
Regarding the drought, the latest drought monitor reflects the overall pattern over the past few months.
Most of our area remains in an extreme drought. An exceptional drought classification has been expanded to include more of our area.
This is in part due to how dry it has been over the past year.
In fact, several spots are around or above 20 inches in deficit. This means we would need almost 2 feet of rain to get out of the drought.
From Aug. 25, 2025, through April 4, 2026, Jacksonville International Airport picked up only 11.17 inches of rain. Average rainfall during this period is 27.36 inches.
This is 16.19 inches below normal for this time frame and is the driest on record since records have been kept, starting in the late 1800s.
Looking ahead, the pattern looks drier.
In fact, the Climate Prediction Center has placed our area in a higher probability of seeing below normal rainfall. This is in part due to an area of high pressure moving over our area.