Tangible evidence of local severe drought

In the recent past, and I'm going back a few years, there have been several official declarations that all, most of or parts of North Carolina have experienced serious and even severe drought. The latter type (severe) usually were confined to small areas or, at most, areas consisting of only a few counties. 

But for the past few months, the whole state has been in some fashion of drought, and in the past couple weeks, the areas affected by severe drought have expanded to include a good portion of the state. 

Temperatures here have been in the 90s for most of the past two weeks, occasionally peaking at 100 or slightly above that. For the most part, oppressive humidity has kept pace, although there have been a few days when it hasn't been as uncomfortable than most, but the actual difference has been minimal. But I guess when it's really bad, any kind of break — even if slight — can be welcome.   

Cities in the Research Triangle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill have imposed various municipal water restrictions as a result of this. So far, those of us who live in unincorporated areas and derive our water from wells, haven't been bound by restrictions and haven't seen any consequences of not reducing our usage. 

At our home, we have never been reckless consumers of water to begin with, so I don't think we need to feel guilty about what we do use, even if it's not significantly less than usual. 

It wasn't until about 10 days ago, on a visit to Wake County's Yates Mill Pond Park, that I was able to detect tangible evidence of just how severe the drought is locally.   

It happened during my long walk when I saw the absence of water flowing over most of the waterfall that is adjacent to the old mill (see lead-off photo and first two photos below). On this day, the only water spilling over was a thin section of falls immediately next to the wheel (see first and second photos below). 

A few days later, when I was there again, even that thin section was dry, and the wheel stopped spinning. Plus, I saw no wildlife of any sort — specifically, turtles, geese, ducks and herons — as I almost always did on my walks there. 

And then just yesterday, June 17, I captured the series of pictures at the bottom of this posts, beginning with the third one below — the dry shallow patches in the actual pond. There were two such patches plus a grossly expanded shoreline on the large (south) side of the pedestrian boardwalk, and one thin but long patch on the small (north) side. 

Added 8:20 a.m. June 19: Overnight since this post went live, remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur swept through North Carolina. The rain certainly was appreciated — and it is still falling as I compose this update — but the predicted final tally of up to an inch won’t be nearly enough to resolve the most serious of drought conditions by the time it is expected to stop before noon today.

Above and first two photos below: Two dry patches and an expanded shoreline on the large (south) portion of the pond. 

Above: The long, thin patch on the small (north) end of the pond. An observation area of the pedestrian boardwalk is on the far right. All of these patches are usually covered by water. 

Above: In an effort to end on an upbeat note, this shot taken Wednesday shows the corn crop in front of a North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences building in the background that walkers in the park see while on the half-mile loop portion at the extreme west end of the two-mile creekside trail. On the downside, the yellowish grass in the foreground is another tell of the dry conditions.