Many Illinois cities and towns dealing with extreme drought conditions

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - Every county in central Illinois is dealing with some level of drought. Many counties around Champaign are dealing with extreme drought conditions.

"We saw drought conditions in July and August, but we really started to see that drought intensify over the course of September, October," said State Climatologist Trent Ford, based at the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois. "This long of a period of time, now that we're going on nine to 10 months worth of drought is pretty rare and especially the magnitude of this drought."

The City of Decatur has kept a close eye on water levels as the drought has continued. They started supplementing the water supply with other sources to help with drought concerns.

"We would probably be a foot to lower if we hadn't been running those sources," said Robert Weil, the water production manager for the City of Decatur. "We have at least two more months before that smaller intake that is used for water supply is affected."

Weil said this is a historical drought, which is causing the city to look into its supply and plan differently for the future. He says the lake is about four feet below the average for this time of year, leaving it at its lowest point in 40 years.

The four-foot drop isn't an easy fix. There will need to be significant rain to get water levels back up to their average amount.

"First and foremost, what we have to bring the groundwater level up, that's going to take about three to four inches to do so," said WAND News Chief Meteorologist Jim Kosek. "Then we work on the Lake Decatur water level. One inch of rain leads to one foot, due to the fact that we have the inflow into Lake Decatur. So we're a little over four below, we need another three to four inches for the groundwater table. So you're talking over eight inches of rain to wipe this whole thing off the map."

Kosek expects the needed 7-8 inches of rain to fall in the next couple of months. He hopes to see the drought downgraded, if not gone, by May.

For up-to-date information on the Lake Decatur water levels, you can check out this website run by the City of Decatur.

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