Right now in Pennsylvania, 36 of the state’s 67 counties are currently under a “drought watch,” according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Kyle Imhoff, Pennsylvania’s state climatologist, said he’s not alarmed by the drought watch.
“It's a relatively rare occurrence that this many counties under a drought watch are seeing drought conditions,” Imhoff said.
A drought is defined as a “long period of time when there is little or no rain,” according to the Oxford Dictionary.
“A lot of people think you've been dry a week or two and you enter a drought, but it's really 60 to 90 days to a couple months,” Imhoff said.
As a state climatologist, Imhoff looks at historical weather graphs to try to predict future weather patterns. He’s also a professor at Penn State.
At Penn State, Imhoff teaches Intro to Forecasting and Climate Studies, which he described as “kind of like an internship.”
Droughts are not a standardized weather phenomenon, like a thunderstorm or earthquake, but they can still be identified regardless.
“There’s no concrete methodology. There are metrics,” Imhoff said. “There’s actually a drought taskforce dedicated to looking at drought conditions across the state.”
Pennsylvania has four drought levels: normal, drought watch, drought warning and drought emergency. At the watch level, residents are asked to try and reduce their water usage by 5-10%.
According to a study published by the Philadelphia Water Department, the average person uses just over 100 gallons of water a day. A 10% reduction to this amounts to reducing water usage by 10 gallons.
“We have gotten some good soaking rains about a week or so ago. It really helped to alleviate some of the issues we’ve been seeing,” Imhoff said.
For Imhoff, he said he believes September can actually be a drier month in Centre County.
“September… is actually typically a drier time of year around here,” Imhoff said. “So I think that's why there's some hesitancy to lift the drought watch even in places that have seen some decent rainfalls over the past week or two.”
Imhoff also said this past summer was “exceptionally dry for the last decade.”
Luca Bolognini was unaware that Centre County was under a drought watch but said he's “pretty good with [conserving] water and electricity anyway.”
“The problem is when it rains, there's going to be damages,” Bolognini (graduate-law) said.
Droughts can deplete groundwater levels, which can result in water insecurity and reduced water quality, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Bolognini is from Italy, and he said that while the climate is different there, he’s concerned for the role that climate change is playing in Centre County.
Barrie Moser, of Moser’s Garden Produce, works at the farmers market on Locust Lane and said he’s not concerned with the drought watch. He said it's not a problem.
“I don’t follow all that,” Moser said.
Alea Coppola said that she thinks the drought could be the result of insufficient water in the area.
Although she wasn’t aware Centre County was in a drought watch, Coppola said she generally doesn’t use more water than she needs to.
“There hasn’t been enough rain,” Coppola (sophomore-animal science) said. “People use too much [water].”
Coppola said if people are just a little more cautious about the amount of water they use throughout the day, they can make a difference.
“You're only talking… a few gallons a day for most people with regular usage. So it's really just small things like that. Even though it may not seem significant, it can make a substantial impact if you do that day in and day out,” Coppola said.
MORE NEWS COVERAGE
A Penn State assistant research professor was charged with stalking after allegedly attempti…
