Portions of the tri-county area are now in a moderate drought, according to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
“That information was just updated (Thursday),” said Chris Leonardi, a meteorologist with the weather service.
Areas in moderate drought are eastern Venango County, southern Forest County and all of Clarion County, Leonardi said.
“I don’t get the sense we are in a severe water shortage, and I don’t get the sense we need personal restrictions right now,” Leonardi said.
However, he said, “it’s always a good idea to conserve water.”
The signs of extreme and prolonged dry conditions have been around for some time -low water levels, brown grass that crunches when walked upon and leaves prematurely turning to fall-like colors as a result of what Leonardi attributes to “increased stress of the dryness.”
Before Clarion County entered into the moderate drought, Commissioner Ted Heasley said he had seen people in the northern section of the county standing in line at springs to get water.
Relief in the form of “good rainfall” is not imminent, according to Leonardi.
“Unfortunately, we can’t say with certainty when that will happen,” he said. “Over the next week, the chances are not good. In the next seven days we might see two-tenths to three-tenths of an inch of rain.”
During that time, he said, there will be a few chances for light rain.”Hopefully, beyond the next weekend we will have a wetter pattern, but nothing is for certain,” he said.
The best-case scenario, Leonardi said, would be multiple inches of rain over a prolonged period.
“We don’t want to see 2 inches in a short period because it would just run off,” he said. “We would prefer to see light to moderate, all-day rain spread out over a long period of time, like a couple of good rains over a couple of days to moisten things up.”
According to Leonardi, the tri-county area’s rainfall was below normal in May and June. Then, in early July, the area entered into the abnormally-dry stage.
In citing United States Drought Monitor – droughtmonitor.unl.edu – Leonardi said no parts of the state have entered into the severe-drought stage, and he wouldn’t predict if the the local area would get to that point.
“It’s tough to say what it would take to get to that next stage,” he said. “It takes in things like soil-moisture levels, stream levels, river levels. There are several factors that go into it.”
Clarion County Public Safety Director Jeff Smathers said there are areas in the county that have been getting rain.
“It is just sparse,” he said. “It will have to get much worse to get
into a severe drought.”
Staff writer Randy Bartley contributed to this report.
