Hydrologic Impact of the 2004 Hurricane Season on South Florida

South Florida was hit by one hurricane, two major hurricanes, and a remnant of a fourth hurricane in less than a seven-week period in 2004. Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne along with remnants of Hurricane Ivan had hydrologic impact on South Florida. A similar series of events had not been observed in records dating back to 1871. The property losses from these hurricanes were extremely high. High rainfall, high surface water flows and a rise in lake water levels were experienced. Most of the rainfall occurred on the Upper and Lower Kissimmee Basins, the headwaters of Lake Okeechobee, which is the central component of the South Florida water management system. In these basins, the 100-year return period of monthly rainfall was observed for September 2004. The resulting surface water flow raised the water level in Lake Okeechobee, a 175,304 ha lake, by 1.64 m between August and October 2004 resulting in a storage increase of 292,347 ha-m. It impacted surface water management in South Florida. This paper presents an analysis for the individual and combined hydrologic impacts of the 2004 hurricanes on South Florida.