With 0.30” of rain this past week, nearly all of York County, South Carolina remains in a “Mildly Dry” condition, affirmed by the U.S. Drought Monitor’s Intensity rating of “D0-Abnormally Dry.” Locally, and with the dog days of summer upon us, plants show continual signs of heat stress and a lack of consistent water. Lawn growth was slowed considerably with some heat-related brown patches, and trees continue to drop leaves. The vegetables, herbs, and flowers require daily watering to prevent wilt. The birds continue to hit the feeders hard, but as mentioned before, I am not sure if this is due to lack of available naturally occurring food sources or a mere convenience for them. Area lakes continue to be 2-3 feet below normal pool levels, but there has been a slow but steady rise over the last few weeks as recent frequent and copious rainfall runoff from across the border in North Carolina feeds into the respective watersheds. Statistically, month-to-date rainfall is 1.04” above normal, but year-to-date lags behind at 2.86” below normal. Compared to last year, rainfall is down a whopping 10.47”.