In deep drought, Illinois towns turn to water limits

CHAMPAIGN — Lake Springfield is 2 feet below full. That happens every year but not usually until fall.

The drought that's drying more than half the country has lowered the level of the lake that the Springfield uses for water enough that the city is joining many others that have either restricted water use or are considering it.

At least half a dozen Illinois cities from Decatur to Rockford have either enacted restrictions or asked water users to cut back.

None seem to be raising serious alarms yet. But a summer that's shaping up to be one of the driest in state history has cities taking steps they hope avoid serious trouble.

Springfield utility spokeswoman Amber Sabin says drought and heat are dropping Lake Springfield by half an inch a day

And a new report shows the drought in the nation's midsection is rapidly intensifying and shows no signs of abating.

Illinois is one of the hardest hit states. It saw its percentage of land in extreme or exceptional drought balloon from 8 percent last week to roughly 71 percent this week.

The U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday shows the range of the drought in the continental U.S. has increased only slightly in the past week.

But the severity is worsening. The report shows that the amount of U.S. land classified in extreme or exceptional drought jumped to more than 20 percent, up 7 percent from last week.

More than 63 percent of the continental U.S. is in some stage of drought, a portion unseen since the Drought Monitor started 1999.