Dry Fall Months Keep Swamp Water Levels Lower than Average

The conservation team recorded 21 percent less rainfall than average for the water year thus far.
A large reptile in a wetland

It is dry, but it has been drier. 探花精选鈥檚 conservation team has been tracking rainfall and water-level data at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for nearly 70 years and reports that we received slightly more than one-tenth of an inch of rain at the Sanctuary in November. This is six percent of the monthly average of two inches. From June through November 2025, we recorded 21 percent less rain than the average for this time of year鈥攊t is the fifth-driest November since 1996.

The 鈥淏 Gauge鈥 currently shows two feet of water in the North Lettuce Lake鈥攁 milestone we鈥檝e reached in late January in recent decades, but before the year 2000, we didn鈥檛 dry down to this level until mid-April. While December鈥檚 cooler weather is helping slow the rate of recession, water levels are nearing the low end of our historical average.