Drought that sparked raging wildfires officially over

The drought that forced a state of emergency to be declared in April in Florida because of massive wildfires raging across the state has officially ended, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

On April 11, Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in Florida due to the growing number of wildfires. On April 25, Manatee County declared a local state of emergency when local drought and wildfire conditions worsened.

Those declarations have expired.

“In Florida, the wet season, which is typically from June to November, began on time and with a lot of moisture,” the U.S. Drought Monitor stated with the release of this week’s map. “All residual dryness from the drier-than-normal dry season is no longer a concern, making the state completely drought free for the first time since early July 2016.”

The drought had prompted burn bans across the state, including in Manatee County, which also have been lifted.

On Thursday, there were prescribed burns of 375 acres in Duette Park, 5 acres in Robinson Preserve and 65 acres in South Fork State Park, according to the Florida Forest Service.

On Monday, Southwest Florida Water Management District officials deactivated their Emergency Operations Center from Level 2 to Level 3, according to a news release. Level 3, a monitoring-only activation level, is used when a specific situation detected calls for monitoring such as hurricane season, which began this month.

Following the state of emergency declaration in April, SWFWMD activated its EOC to Level 2 because of the wildfires.

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 12:04 PM with the headline "Drought that sparked raging wildfires officially over."