Water use is generally lower in the winter, so many of the effects of this year's drought have yet to be felt. Paul Swartz is Director of the Interstate Susquehanna River Basin Commission, responsible for managing water resources throughout much of Central Pennsylvania. He says if the drought continues, farmers could be seriously hurt this Spring.

"The farmers are worried at this point about whether there's going to be adequate rainfall for them to grow a crop," says Swartz, "because they know that three years ago, in '99, they suffered a lot of crop damage and hundreds of millions of dollars in losses as a result of the drought then.

Harry Lins is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, which maintains data on water levels across the country. He says there's evidence this year's drought could be even worse.

"The problem is the situation at this time of year is much worse than it was at the same time of the year back in '99," says Lins. "And therefore in the absence of significantly additional rainfall in the spring, it's very likely that we'll have conditions more severe than we saw in 1999."

According to Christopher Roberts, of the Delaware River Basin Commission, there's an upside to having a drought in the cold months. People don't use as much water in the winter to water their lawns or wash their cars, so it's easier to conserve what water there is. But he says it's important not to underestimate the impact of a winter drought.

"I don't think folks are aware of the potential for some real serious problems this summer," he says. "You don't have the brown lawns now and duty roads, so folks just think everything's fine. You turn on the spigot and some water comes out."

But, Roberts adds, if there isn't enough rainfall to recharge groundwater reserves and surface water sources, the spigot might not continue to work so efficiently. Paul Swartz, from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission says already many reservoirs in his region, which would be used to supply water in an emergency, are far below their normal levels for this time of year.

Swartz says it's important to carefully manage the water resources, since there's no way to tell how much longer the drought could last. "Public response to the declarations that have been made by Governor Schweiker to conserve water resources when we were in a watch stage back in August, and then in a warning stage in November have been heeded," he says. "There's been a good public response. But we need to continue."