It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of you that Central and Southern Maine are experiencing drought conditions. According to data released a few days ago, we’re now in Moderate Drought. Rainfall in May and June was substantially below normal, and so far July is following suit. These dry conditions make it hard to maintain the lake level. Minor leaking results in some water loss of course, but by far evaporation is taking the biggest bite out of Clary Lake’s water level. There’s not much we can do about it except hope for rain. On a bright note, Clary Lake water quality tends to benefit from dry conditions due to the lack of runoff. Runoff from rainfall is the primary cause of soil erosion and sedimentation in the Clary Lake watershed and is the primary source of unwanted Phosphorus.