I just don’t understand this. Seems like it has been raining every day for a couple of months now, yet I still here officials say it is still a drought. Whazup with that?

EXPERT ANSWER: We have to look at water the average annual rainfall should be compared to what it actually is. We are still only at 41 inches for the year, and it is supposed to be 50-52 inches at this point. So we still have Phase III restrictions. What that means is that we can now water once a week (before 8 a.m. and after 6 p.m.), wash our cars once a week, and we can pressure-wash our homes. We can use an ornamental fountain for four hours a day, and the Scouts and other groups can hold car-washes to raise money.

Part of the problem with supply is also that the regional reservoir has cracks. As a result, Tampa Bay Water, the utility charged with finding better alternatives to the past practice of pumping excessive amounts of water out of the ground, has had to drain half of the water out while they are figuring out the source of the problem. The reservoir is currently almost empty.

Because of the drought, our various bodies of water, including the aquifer, are still in decline. It will take above-average amounts of rain to recover these water sources, and the rainfall is still below-average.

Maggy Graham