Jul 13, 2007 6:35 pm US/Eastern
Several Md. Counties Are Under Moderate Drought
by Alex DeMetrick
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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The drought map released Thursday shows all or parts of eleven counties that were listed last week as "abnormally dry" are now in the moderate drought category. (File)
CBS
Concern for farmers in more than a third of the state. Experts say portions of Maryland are under a moderate drought.
Alex DeMetrick shows us the affected areas and what could happen next.
The scattered storms have been heavy but not widespread. They've done little to ease the concerns of farmers living in parts of the state now considered to be experiencing a moderate drought.
"We're irrigating all the time just to try to keep things alive," said Crystal Callahan. "Sometimes it just causes things to die back."
Callahan works on a farm in Hebron, Wicomico County. It's getting tough on the lower Eastern Shore where dry is turning into drought.
Crops not irrigated are showing the brown of stress. According to a national survey, parts of the state are in the first stages of drought.
Counties on the drought list include the four lower shore counties, the three southern Maryland counties and the lower portions of Prince George's, Anne Arundel, Talbot and Caroline counties.
At the Farmer's Market in Cambridge, Dorchester County, what can't be picked can't be sold.
But according to
WJZ's Bob Turk, we may be waiting weeks for it, until tropical systems move in, forcing the pop up streams out.
"We're in a peak thunderstorm period right now with the highest sun,"
Bob Turk said. "The rainfall patterns right now for at least the next several weeks aren't going to change much. Spotty thunderstorm activity in the afternoon when it's pretty humid out."
Many farmers
Eyewitness News talked are trying to beat the drought by not putting everything into one crop.
Moderate drought conditions now being experienced by a little more than a third of the state are considered the least serious of four drought categories.
Click here to learn more about the drought.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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