Thursday the National Drought Mitigation Center declared the Southeast region of Wisconsin to be under a severe drought. The affected areas included parts of Ozaukee, Washington, Jefferson, and Rock counties, as well as the entire counties of Waukesha and Milwaukee.
According to the National Weather Services, we currently are seeing a deficit of 4 to 7 inches of rain and typically we should be seeing 1 inch of rain each week.
Meteorologist Mark Gehring from the National Weather Services says farmers without irrigation resources will be impacted directly by the drought this month. "Many farmers don’t have the equipment, I believe it is expensive," says Gehring.
Back in 2012, Southeast Wisconsin saw extreme drought conditions leading to conservation water restrictions created by the County. "They were asking you don’t water the lawns and don’t take too many showers," says Gehring.
While it's too soon to predict the worst, Gehring believes we must see consistent widespread showers to combat the potential severity."If it hits your farm field that’ll be good for you, but for many people, it will miss or it just won’t be enough."
Gehring warns if we do not see more precipitation by the end of July, counties could experience similar extreme water restrictions to that of 2012.
