DOVER-FOXCROFT – Continued snowfall and some moderate spring rain would help relieve drought conditions that prevail in Maine, but what the state really needs is the return of normal weather conditions, according to a U.S. Geological Survey official.

Two recent snowstorms were beneficial, but the state needs much more help, Bob Lent, district chief with the U.S. Geological Survey, said Friday. The drought is very real and is likely to continue, he predicted.

“We’re really at the mercy of the weather,” Lent said. “We’re crossing our fingers and our toes hoping for the best.”

Last year’s weather contributed to the drought conditions. Maine experienced low average precipitation for more than a year and has not had above-average precipitation since the spring of 2000, according to the Maine’s Drought Task Force.

As of a week ago, there was about 1 to 2 inches of water in the snowpack and Lent said with the recent storms that could have doubled. The snowpack now is completely reasonable for this time of year and is in the normal range for most areas in the state, he said. There are scattered locations that are below normal range and few areas that are above.

While the snowpack is normal, what is not normal is the extremely low groundwater levels. Even with the snowpack, the groundwater has not been fully replenished. Assuming the state receives a moderate to good snowpack and a nice slow snowmelt in the spring, groundwater levels will rise but the reservoirs will not be recharged, Lent said.

Groundwater levels were 5 inches below normal in August 2000, but the deficit has reached double digits, according to Thomas Hawley of the National Weather Service bureau in Gray. Hawley said Friday that the entire state is in a drought but Down East is in the worst shape.

While both officials called the recent snowfalls beneficial, neither would speculate on how that would impact the drought conditions this spring.

“It’s important for the public to realize that the drought is very real and it may continue and cause some problems,” Lent said Friday.

Lent said it is hard to speculate how much Maine will recover in groundwater and surface water in the spring because there is so little historical data from the 1960s when the last drought occurred in the state and the conditions were similar.

A good snowpack, depending on how it melts, could be beneficial to the groundwater or the surface water. The concern now is that both are so low that we really do need help, Lent said. Last spring, there was little rain and much of the snowpack evaporated into the air instead of soaking into the ground and filling Maine’s lakes.