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Bay Area reservoir full after Tampa sees more than 77 inches of rain this year

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Published  October 14, 2024 10:08pm EDT
Hillsborough County
FOX 13 News

Heavy rain fills reservoir after summer drought

More than 77 inches of rain in Tampa in 2024 has caused the C. W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir to fill with water, setting it up for success during the upcoming dry season.

RIVERVIEW, Fla. - Tampa saw more than 77 inches of rain this year, and that’s the most since 1890 when record keeping began. 

For a lot of Floridians, it comes with many hardships. We’ve seen major flooding amid already saturated land, but it has prepared us better than ever for the dry season. 

"Our reservoir is our water savings account. All this rainfall helped us store water. And that's really what that reservoir is built to do is to save water for when it gets dry," said Brandon Moore, with Tampa Bay Water.

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Right now, the C.W. Bill Young regional reservoir in Riverview is full, housing more than 15 billion gallons of usable water. It filled quickly this fall, going from five to 15 billion gallons since August.

"That's enough to fill Raymond James stadium 33 times, actually. And, when it gets full, we stop putting water in, and we save it for when we need it," said Moore. 

When the reservoir is full, it can provide 25% of the region’s drinking water needs for more than six months.

"Its the rainiest year on record in Tampa, and now we are entering our dry season, and its incredible how we can go from too much rain to not enough rain and then four or five months from now we say ‘we’ve got a little problem here we need some rain,'" said FOX 13's Chief Meteorologist Paul Dellegatto.

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Earlier this year, during a major drought, the reservoir got low; down to 2 billion gallons, so this is a good sign for next year. 

"We will have additional droughts in our future, this is just a snapshot in time," said Dellegatto. "Very few people complain about rain, but even here we can have too much rain and the silver lining: The water has now filled a reservoir that in the winter and the spring will serve us some good."

Although it’s full to the brim, the reservoir is controlled with pipes and can’t overflow.

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