To get a sense of how dry things are getting, look to the well-drillers.

When rain stops falling, their phones start ringing, as homeowners unattached to municipal water systems need to dig a little deeper into the water table.

“We’re starting to see an uptick,” said Hunter Snelling of Odenheimer Co., founded in 1939 and billed as the Lehigh Valley’s oldest water system business. “Whenever we get a hot spell, we’ll get calls, and then it’ll rain before we can get to everyone.”

Snelling, the company’s vice president, said he’s had a half-dozen calls in the past four or five days, mainly from people with systems that are “kind of marginal to begin with” — hand-dug wells, which don’t tap very deep into the underground supply, or spring-fed systems that dry up when the springs do.

And the springs are drying up, along with everything else. Since June 1, when nature closed the spigot, the area’s rainfall deficit is more than six inches.

Dried leaves litter the dead grass along Catasauqua Road in Allentown. The ubiquity of brown lawns is the most visible sign of the Lehigh Valley's rainfall deficit. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call)

July was the 16th driest on record for the Valley — the National Weather Service’s online precipitation chart for the month is almost all zeroes except for July 18, when 1.5 inches of rain fell. The month ended up a little more than 3 inches below normal, with the temperature more than 2 degrees above normal.

August has been no better, with 0.18 inches on the books as of Friday. Spotty thunderstorms that provide drenching downpours are just that — spotty. They provide short-lived relief to small areas.

Despite all of this, the Lehigh Valley isn’t in a drought. The first part of the year was soggy, with precipitation from February through March well above normal, so groundwater remains above drought level.

How long that will last is anyone’s guess. Ray Martin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, said the best chance of significant rain for most of the area is Monday, but amounts are still uncertain. And the forecast shows signs of drying out again after that.

U.S. Drought Monitor map showing conditions in Pennsylvania. (U.S. Drought Monitor/The Morning Call)

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows portions of Pennsylvania’s central and northern tier counties in moderate drought. Parts of rest of the state — including about 30% of the Lehigh Valley — are listed as “abnormally dry,” a precursor to drought.

On an outlook map valid through August, the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service says drought development is “likely” in eastern Pennsylvania.

Areas to the north and east of Pennsylvania are faring more poorly. The drought monitor shows an expansion and intensification of drought in New England, New York and New Jersey. Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut are in “extreme” drought.

The most serious drought category is “exceptional,” which so far has been limited to parts of the West and Southwest, mainly in California and Texas. Those areas have been beset by water shortages and catastrophic wildfires.

Here, the effects are partly aesthetic — brown lawns, withered gardens — and partly practical, as the increasing need for well-deepening shows. The impact on agriculture begins with moderate drought, as irrigation use increases, hay and grain yields decrease and honey production declines.

It could all end in short order. Thanks to La Niña — the cold counterpart of the warm, climate-shifting El Niño ocean current — the Climate Prediction Center predicts an above-average Atlantic hurricane season, which could bring tropical moisture our way.

AccuWeather, the private forecasting company in State College, predicts 16 named storms, including six to eight hurricanes, will form during the remainder of hurricane season, which runs from June through November. So far, however, no hurricanes or named storms have formed since July 2.

Martin, the National Weather Service meteorologist, said counting on tropical weather to end drought falls into the “be careful what you wish for” category.

“They can result in some very serious flooding,” he said. “We had a big drought in 1999. The deluge of [Hurricane] Floyd ended that, but that was some of the worst flooding we ever had.”

Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com