It's been weeks since the Philadelphia region has seen measurable rainfall. The NBC10 First Alert Weather Team is currently monitoring the drought throughout the area.
Right now, parts of the Lehigh Valley and Berks County in Pennsylvania have moderate drought, while all of Philadelphia and its surrounding counties fall under the same category.
Philadelphia could break a record for consecutive days without rain, which currently stands at 29 days.
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Delaware has moderate drought, with pockets of severe drought in all three counties.
Meanwhile, in South Jersey, conditions are looking moderate, with five counties in the severe category, a bulk of that being in Burlington County.
On Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy issued a statewide drought watch urging homeowners and businesses to conserve water.
The New Jersey Forest Fire Service implemented statewide fire restrictions to avoid wildfire activity as the drought continues.
Local drought impact
Local farmers are feeling the impact of the drought.
The owners of the Browning Hess Farm, a family-owned business that has been going strong for about 100 years, says this is the most intense drought they've experienced in several decades.
“Normally you would say you’d pick I don’t know 10 baskets of say peppers—well they’re so dry and shriveled and everything now that you’re lucky to pick three," Chris Milligan, works for the Browning Hess Farm, said.
For this time of the year the farm, located in Moorestown, New Jersey, would have crops like peppers and tomatoes but as the drought stretches on most of the crops have not survived.
Even their thriving picked flower field has turned brown and dry.
“As farmers we must remain optimistic so I remain optimistic that things will turn around," Debbie Browning Hess, owner of the farm, said.
Kaitlyn Trudeau of Climate Central says we could expect these conditions to linger for the next three to four weeks.
“When you look at [it] over the long term, we are seeing not only more drought conditions but we’re also seeing the drought conditions intensify," Trudeau said.
She said the overarching perpetrator of these droughts is human caused climate change and suggests we could keep our area safe.
“I mean things just like being very careful when you’re going out, things like camping, making sure we put campfires out, driving you know big equipment, making sure things aren’t dragging or starting sparks, throwing cigarettes out of the window—things like that...all it takes is one spark to start a fire,” Trudeau said.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection suggests that in order to preserve water during a drought people should watch their water usage and try to decrease it by 65% by doing things like taking only five minute showers and postponing intensive yard work.
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