The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a drought watch yesterday in 58 counties, including Centre County, and is urging residents to cut down on their water usage.
The drought watch was caused by a deficit in precipitation in the past few months, said Ron Ruman, information specialist at the DEP.
"The levels from May on have been well below normal," he said. "It's not just precipitation levels; ground water and stream flow levels are also low."
Alan Reppert, a meteorologist at AccuWeather, said Centre County has been in a pattern of little rain for the last 70 days and has not seen more than 4.97 inches of rain since June.
He said the current precipitation level is 25 percent below normal, and the pattern has only been present for the past few months.
"The average rainfall around this time of year is made up of highs and lows, but the level is below normal," Reppert said.
He added that there are showers and thunderstorms expected for today and through the weekend, and although the amount that will fall is unknown, any precipitation in the area at this point will help.
When it comes to awareness and warning levels, Ruman said a drought watch is the least severe, followed by drought warnings and drought emergencies.
In the case of a drought watch, Ruman said county residents are urged to cut back their water usage by 5 percent.
"The average use per household is between 50 and 60 gallons a day," he said
"All people need to do is cut back their usage by three gallons."
Paul Ruskin, Office of Physical Plant spokesman, said there are many easy ways for students and residents to cut back on water usage.
Some of these tips include: taking shorter showers, making sure the dishwasher and washing machine are completely full before running them and not running water while you are brushing your teeth.
"We will look at research uses of water around campus and notify users of things to do to cut down the amount of water being used around campus," he said.
Ruskin said he doesn't expect the deficit of water to cause any great problems for the athletic fields around campus.
"It's always a challenge to keep the fields looking good during a water deficit," Ruskin said, "but we've been through this before and will look to limit our water uses without any negative effect to the fields."
