Hillsborough River inching up from recent rain

Posted May 19, 2009 by TBO.com

Updated May 19, 2009 at 09:36 AM

The past eight days of rain are giving a slight boost to the Hillsborough River after the river kept setting records daily for low flows in April and early May.

Since the rains began last week, the river level rose a tad more than a foot at Morris Bridge, upstream from Tampa’s reservoir.

And there could be more improvement in coming days. The Green Swamp, source of the Hillsborough and three other rivers, is finally getting some rain. On Monday, a weather station operated by the Southwest Florida Water Management District measured more than 1.5 inches in the swamp. The Green Swamp has now received 2.75 inches of rain this month.

Though it will be awhile before rainfall in the swamp will show up in the Hillsborough River’s flow, rainfall at other places in the river’s watershed will be felt sooner.

The Alafia River, another source of drinking water during the rainy season, also rose about six inches but has dropped slightly in the past two days. The Alafia is a river that reacts more rapidly to rainfall or the lack of it than the Hillsborough.

Brooksville is the rainfall king so far this month, picking up more rain that any other location the water management district tracks, with 7.54 inches through Monday.