With dryness spreading like brushfire across the region, New Jersey officially is asking residents to make peace with their browning lawns, ease up on the faucets, and cram those plates into their dishwashers.
After the state's driest summer since 1966, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection declared a "drought watch" Wednesday for the entire state.
While Pennsylvania has not taken any formal action, it does plan to convene a meeting of the federal-state drought task force.
In the last 30 days, rainfall has been below normal in 19 of 21 New Jersey counties and 59 of Pennsylvania's 67, according to the National Weather Service.
The worst of the dryness evidently is concentrated in the Philadelphia region. No rain has been measured at the official station at Philadelphia International Airport in 16 days.
Precipitation for the last 30 days is about 30 percent of normal in the city, and about 20 percent in Burlington County. The extended forecast calls for about a 100 percent chance of sun well into the weekend.
Conspiring with the cumulative effects of summer heat, the dry spell has turned lawns brown and set off a premature outbreak of leaf-blower use. Overall, New Jersey has had its eighth-driest summer on record, according to David A. Robinson, a Rutgers University professor who is the state climatologist.
Ample winter and spring precipitation, however, have left supplies of drinking water in decent shape, and New Jersey said it was holding off on issuing a drought warning, which would trigger mandatory restrictions.
For now, New Jersey recommends that residents take such measures as cutting back on lawn-watering; holding off on those suds-intensive at-home car washes; jam-packing dishwashers and washing machines; and not running faucets while brushing teeth.
Water-use restrictions imposed last month in Moorestown and Burlington Townships remain in effect.
On Aug. 5, the state declared a drought watch in five North Jersey counties, said department spokesman Larry Ragonese. It must have worked. Shortly thereafter, it started raining up there - "the only part of the state that got inundated," said Ragonese.
Oddly, something similar happened in Pennsylvania. The state has not yet decided when to convene the drought meeting, said DEP spokesman Tom Rathbun. But it bears watching: On July 9 Pennsylvania announced it would hold a task-force meeting.
During the next five days, more than five inches of rain fell in Philadelphia.
Contact staff writer Anthony R. Wood at 610-313-8210 or twood@phillynews.com.
