May brought the St. Johns River Water Management District its first above-normal rainfall in seven months, but officials told the governing board June 6 that the gains were not enough to lift a Phase 3 extreme drought water shortage order covering much of North Florida.
Tim Miller, the district’s bureau chief for water resource information, also said Lake Brooklyn dropped 0.7 feet in May, lowering the Keystone Heights’ lake by over 12 feet over the last year.