Drought Conditions
Many Indiana cities and water utilities are urging homeowners to stop watering their lawns and take other steps to prevent water shortages amid the state's dry spell.
Indianapolis Water customers used 222 million gallons, just three million gallons shy of a single-day record set in June 2005, another dry month. About 60 million gallons of the water pumped in recent days has gone to lawn watering, watering gardens or flowers and filling up swimming pools.
With the dry conditions persisting, Indianapolis and other central Indiana communities are asking residents to conserve water and cut back on outdoor watering. May ranked as the 25th-driest on record in Indianapolis since record keeping began in 1871, and that dry spell has persisted in June as the typical spring rains have failed to materialize.
A NOAA drought-monitoring map labels Indiana and much of central Ohio as abnormally dry, which means crop growth has been slowed and there's an above-normal fire risk in fields.
June 14, 2007 7:12 AM | Category: Drought