Numbers released yesterday show that the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, which includes Lexington as well as Falmouth, has improved slightly over the previous week. The Bluegrass is in mild drought. But most people in the eastern half of the state look around and see a landscape that doesn't look like anything that could be called a drought. It certainly doesn't look like July 1999. Corn and tobacco that were brown and struggling now are lush and deep green.
Lawns also are lush even though sprinklers are running less.
What a difference rainfall and cooler temperatures make. In the last week, Kentucky-American Water Co. supplied its customers in Lexington and surrounding areas with an average of 45 million gallons a day. During the same period last year, even with mandatory restrictions in place, it was 53 million gallons a day. The Kentucky River was flowing past Lexington's intake yesterday at a rate of 748 million gallons a day. That's more than twice the flow for the same day last year.