A scorching drought that prompted "burn bans" in most counties across Indiana probably won't be helped much by recent light rain, a weather service forecaster says.
The drought has damaged lawns, crops and even fireworks sales, according to a Muncie company that makes fireworks.
North Central Industries is losing sales because some would-be customers are afraid of accidently starting fires, product specialist Kurt Cowgill said.
Cowgill said the same thing happened during a drought in 1988 and that he thinks people are being overcautious.
"If people use fireworks, Indiana's not going to burn to the ground because of the drought," he said.
Cowgill said most of his company's products are made to go off in the air, and are less of a fire risk than ground-based goods. Common sense should prevent most problems, he added.
"A lot of people are smart enough to set these things off on pavement or gravel or something other than their yard," he said.
Eighty-five counties have banned or limited outdoor burning, according to the state Department of Homeland Security.
David Miller, chief inspector for the Muncie Fire Department, said Delaware County has a burn ban, though there has not been an unusually large number of fires.
"I think people pay attention to the precautions that have been put out there about the drought," he said.
At Ball State, eight weeks without rain has all but killed some of the campus' landscaping, said Michael Planton, associate director for landscape and environmental management.
"The smaller the plant, the more stress it gets," Planton said. "We have to decide which plants we're going to keep alive and which ones we can't, and that's kind of a hard decision to make sometimes."
Planton has been providing extra water for his crews in the heat and has even told some of his workers to back off when the temperature gets too high.
"I'd say on the asphalt, it was pushing 111 (degrees) where we were trying to water trees," he said. "So we just say, 'Hey, pull off. Go someplace else.'"
The Ball State crews have given plants double the normal amount of water for this time of year. In just one day last week, Planton estimated, they used between 8,000 and 10,000 gallons of water.
Muncie is well below the normal 3.89 inches of rainfall for June, said Amanda Homann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.
"Normally, we're looking at April and May to be the most active time, and May was pretty darn quiet," Homann said. "In the beginning, there was a little bit going on but the middle-end of May, and especially June, has just been really quiet."
Cities typically urge residents to limit the amount of water used for lawns during dry periods. Homann said the region could face shortages if people don't heed that advice.
"We're getting to the point now where water supply could become an issue down the road," she said. "So it's not suggested to water your lawn all the time, just to keep it looking nice."
Some crops, meanwhile, may be badly damaged already.
"If we could get a couple days with a good ... really hard rain - just a nice rain for a couple of days - it could help things out," Homann said. "But you're not going to revive crops that have struggled so much already."
Muncie ended June with only 1.64 inches of rain, she noted.
"I don't think that's anything to say your drought is over or anything like that," she said.
"You've got a long ways to go."
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