CONNECTICUT, USA — Over the last 90 days, rainfall across the state is down three to seven inches below normal. It's the reason state officials are announcing certain areas of Connecticut are now experiencing drought conditions.
Litchfield, Tolland, Windham, and Hartford counties are all experiencing stage 2 drought conditions according to the state’s Interagency Drought Workgroup.
Stage 2 is otherwise known as a drought advisory ---identifying an emerging drought that could potentially impact water supplies agriculture and natural ecosystems.
Chair of the Drought Workgroup Martin Heft said the combination of a lack of rain and the excessive heat we’ve seen this year is increasing the use of water and impacting the state’s water resources.
“There are stages where reservoirs are down, certain water supplies are down and everything, but we’re not at a stage where we’ve declared that there’s a drought in the state yet,” Heft said.
Officials said the advisory means residents in affected areas should take steps to conserve water now to offset further impacts during the final weeks of summer.
“We’re looking at reducing those automatic outdoor irrigation systems, postponing planting of a new lawn as we’re getting closer to cooler weather hopefully in the fall, new lawns or new vegetation that require extra watering.,” Heft said.
MDC water supply in Hartford said its water reservoirs can store more than 36 billion gallons of water, therefore they’re not lacking supply right now, but small water companies face more of a challenge.
“There are different water companies with different reservoir capacities. it's always prudent to conserve and we will keep our customers advised,” Nick Salemi MDC Communications Administrator said.
Environmental officials emphasized this is just an advisory stage at this point, but want residents to use water wisely now as heat and dry conditions continue.