NAPLES, Fla. – Florida’s Division of Transportation shut down a part of Interstate 75 early Thursday attributable to heavy smoke from a wildfire that has exploded to greater than 30,604 acres in South Florida this week amid the state’s worst drought in 25 years.
I-75 was closed early Thursday between Exits 80 and 23, a part of an 80-mile stretch throughout the Everglades referred to as Alligator Alley — a key cross-state artery.
The freeway reopened round 6:30 a.m. native time.
The Nationwide Hearth is now 25,780 acres in Large Cypress Nationwide Forest close to Naples, in accordance with the Nationwide Interagency Wildfire Enterprise.
Florida’s Division of Transportation warned drivers in Collier County Tuesday about heavy smoke being produced by the blaze, in addition to drivers within the close by Everglades about smoke from brush fires in that area.
The whole state is affected by bone-dry situations.
Greater than 650 wildfires have been noticed throughout the state because the starting of 2026, the Florida Forest Service mentioned earlier in February.
Nonetheless, some much-needed rain is anticipated to offer a modicum of aid starting Thursday and lasting via the primary half of the weekend.
Based on the U.S. Drought Monitor, 98 % of the state is experiencing some stage of drought, with over 67 % in “extreme drought”, probably the most since 2001.
Florida has been in a protracted dry sample because the 2025 hurricane season.
“Tropical techniques, for all of the destruction they trigger, nonetheless produce a number of rain,” the FOX Forecast Middle mentioned.
2025 was a uncommon Atlantic hurricane season that noticed no landfalling hurricanes within the U.S. That lack of rain continued via the fall and has held via this winter.
Drought situations are additionally worsening for different components of the area, together with Georgia, the place 100% of the state is experiencing drought, though not fairly as extreme as Florida’s.
An space of low stress will swing out of the Plains and produce a bit of aid to the Southeast.
Based on the FOX Forecast Middle, a chilly entrance related to this method will start to drop rain throughout components of Tennessee and North Carolina via Thursday morning, earlier than spreading throughout the South together with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina via the day.
The chilly entrance will slide south, bringing rain into the Florida Panhandle and the northern and central components of the state by Friday afternoon, and showers are anticipated to linger via Saturday morning.
Naples, Florida is sort of over 1.5 inches under their common rain year-to-date and West Palm Seaside is 5 inches under its common.
Based on the FOX Forecast Middle, West Palm Seaside has but to see a single day with rain this yr, over a fifteenth of an inch. Elements of South Florida might double their rain complete for the yr with this one shot of rain.
Rain totals will typically be round 1–2 inches throughout a hall from East Tennessee via Georgia and Central Florida, together with the Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Orlando metro areas.
Whereas it is a welcome break from the dry situations, drought situations are anticipated to persist via the remainder of Florida’s dry season, which lasts till Might.
