And what makes it worse is the constant prediction of "60% chance of thunderstorms". I leave for work everyday wondering if I should water or if we're about to get a deluge later in the day. Where I'm at in Chicago we had a brief but powerful thunderstorm two Saturdays ago that destroyed a few things in my garden, and then a short downpour this Saturday. Where's the good daylong soaking drizzle? And the 90 degree weather is killing my peas and making the lettuce bolt.
The only upside is that my Zuchinni and Cucumbers are going gangbusters.

I'll send you some rain. We have had more than our fair share. I am debating purchasing a goat to eat the lawn as it has been too wet to mow. I'm in Omaha.

We just moved to a new home on the northside and have numerous new planting: Trees; shrubs; vegetables; herbs and perennials; in 6 distinct areas. I've been running around like a waterboy at the Bears' July summer camp trying to get the plantings watered. Luckily, I started watering in late April when 'April Showers' did not occur--and have been watering ever since. I find 2 sites helpful: 1) Tom Skilling's 'weblog', which reported 3 weeks ago or so, that the US Agriculture dept. (USDA) had declared an 'incipient drought' for the Chicago area. 2) Inellicast. This shows the radar for the Chicago area, and I routinely monitor this for any approaching rain, beacause as CPeters astutely observed, the Weather Channel forecast graphics has shown showers and storms for the past many days. The link below is to Inellicast. Hope this information helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicago-O'Hare Radar

Applefan, whereabouts in Naperville do you live? I am in Hobson Village. If you have any prairie/woodland plants you are willing to trade let me know.

Gurram

I'm in Oswego, and we've had days of terrific wind, too, and you can almost hear the moisture being sucked out of the soil.

I hear you Illinois gang - I'm south of Springfield about 40 miles and FINALLY we had 3/4" about Sunday and then 2" in a nasty storm Monday night. At least thank goodness we finally got moisture. We live in the country where watering is essentially impossible for my expansive borders and vegie garden.

I work out of town and won't be home until the weekend to see how things are doing, it's cooled off some, too.

But yes, a cool spring and the coolness made the lack of moisture bearable, but add that heat and it's bad. The forecast looks 100% dry for the next 10 days, too. Darn stuck weather patterns...

Had about 3 inches here the last few days. I thought it was all clear and sprayed the apple trees today....rained this evening!

Due to the sustained high temp levels w/o rain I have had NO yield of veggies like cauliflower or cabbage. ANyone else have better luck?

I'm in Palatine, a NW Chicago suburb, and like some of you, I am sick to death of seeing thunderstorms in the forecast for days on end -- and then not getting a drop of rain. This is a nightmare. I can only hope that the forecasters are wrong about the seven days of sun in the new forecast! I haven't finished planting yet and it's already mid-June!

Im in Arlington Heights. Our area has literally missed every single 'pop up' storm. We are in a giant hole of dryness, and the forecast looks awful. 80s-90s and sunny EVERY day. This is going to be more like Phoenix...

Chitown

I'm down by Scott AFB and it has been JUST DRY! Nasty storm the beginning of the week but it's just not enough. Nothing coming in the near future iether. I'm considering rain barrels and recycling some of the "house" water. Please, let it rain soon...

My neighbor (and gardening buddy) is a field supervisor for a seed company, and she told me back in early March that all the companies were forecasting drought conditions for the summer. So I haven't been getting my hopes up with all of the "yes, it will probably rain!" forecasts.

Quite handy to have a field supervisor living so close--she also alerts me when the Japanese beetles have made it into the fields, since that's usually about 2 weeks before they make it into town. (Once they've eaten all the corn and soybeans, maybe.) Gives me a little time to spray my roses and be on the alert--

A friend just told me he had heard on the radio that Illinois was the 2nd driest state in the country right now. :-(

I've been trying to look on the bright side. The mosquito, slug, and fungus populations have been down from last year -- but it's little consolation when I'm outside watering at midnight!

and I just heard on the news tonight that we're having the 7th driest Mar thru May period since the 1880's (no, I didn't type the year wrong!). I dread the next water bill!

Yes, it HAS been dry. We are on the southwest side of Chicago and every pop up storm has gone around us. Water bill is going to be a big OUCH next month. Double ouch is the fear we may lose some plants we just put in due to not enough water.. or too much? Any rule of thumb on how to know how long to leave out the sprinkler?

Horribly dry here too, just west of St Charles, IL. We're on a well, and recently our water has taken on a pungent sulphur smell. I've been watering quite a bit, and while I feel pretty comfortable that the well won't run dry, the stench is certainly nasty.

When I started gardening at this house, I made about 1/4 acre prairie, and somehow the rest of it has ended up with higher maintenance perennials & roses. I wonder how much would die if I didn't water?

Here's a story about Kendall county farms from the Beacon News this morning, which includes this summary:

Rainfall totals
March: average 2.65 inches/actual 1.48 inches
April 3.68/1.53
May 3.38/1.99
June 3.63/actual to date .72
Source: National Weather Service

Here is a link that might be useful: Dry fields suffer weather's wrath

I knew I'd heard something about the Fox River being very low, and dug up this one from yesterday at the following link:

"Experts say the dry weather  coupled with above-average temperatures  have lead to decreased water levels in the Fox River, which Tuesday recorded its second-lowest flow rate in 35 years."

Here is a link that might be useful: Aurora puts restrictions on watering

Well I'm probably going to lose one of my big silver maples in front of the house. It has a lot of dead branches. I know silver maples aren't a "choice" tree or anything, but these things are 80 years old. I hope it rains soon.

isn't 1" of water per week the rule of thumb for lawn water needs? Have to go move the sprinkler again!

We're in Westchester NW Chicago burbs
I feel like my watering wand is an extra limb right now
we have watering restrictions untill 8pm here and since I have our garden to water and also a garden for some freinds I feel like I am just sweaty muddy and wet from watering all the time .........................
Our lettuce is like dishrags right now and strawberries a disaster .......... Toms seem happy ........ Why is is some flower beds look lovley .and other drys a bone --and they are both near each other ..............
Grass is a lovley shade of straw --we don;t water when it is hot ......... we need the water for the veg garden and flower beds --lawn is the last thing we worry about --folks around here get silly watering there lawn --are;nt they suposed to go dormant in this weather ??????
Oh well I look at state ............finished the watering for this 24 hr period .................
Untill tomorrow
Janice
The Brit ...........

Even my Rudbeckia is wilting. My purple coneflowers were like goosenecks yesterday. Sigh......... Many spots in the backyard are cracked. Can't water evenly and long enough. Feverfew are getting powdery mildew now...all water stressed. Oyve...:-(

Like the person above me, I noticed my rudbeckia wilting yesterday. That tells ya something is wrong when the native prairie plants are unhappy.
Honestly, the whole thing is really stressing me out. I never water my lawn, but my gardens are quite extensive. I can only imagine the water bill if I were to water everything. Due to this, I am forced to make decisions I would prefer not to make. I water the annuals, then decide what else needs water. I just know in the end I'm going to be left with a lot of dead/stressed out plants.
Nothing we can do about it, though.

MrMorton, are you in Joliet? Your beautiful garden looks like one of my neighbors, on Park Ave.

Speaking of native plants wilting, my Asclepias tuberosa is wilting also :(. Yep, it is pretty bad when the natives are wilted. We've been asked to cease all lawn irrigation yet two of my neighbors have had their sprinklers going all day today, watering their precious lawns, grrrrrr. Hang in there everyone! With our crazy Midwest weather we'll probably be floating in a month or so and begging for the rain to stop!!!

Grand,
Yes, I do live in Joliet. Corner of Park and Marion. White house w/ the stone wall in front. I really like your home. very cottagey looking. I like all the stone work, too.

Back to complaining about the weather...

We are in Carol Stream, IL. I'm so glad we mulched heavily with grass clippings several weeks ago. When i pull it back to check, the ground is soft and slightly moist. I turn the drip irrigation on some evenings and let it drip all night. The plants are really happy. Still picking snow peas, though the end is in sight. I've never had them grow so tall, some up over the chain-link fence! It will be very good to get a good soaking rain, however!

First waterbill as an IL resident came in last night. The water/sewer amount was about the same as the worst at our old house....but the billing periods are for different quarters. We're not supposed to get the high bill until the July/Sept quarter ! Oh well, nothing has died yet.

Yeah It's been awful, and the worst - twice in the past week 10 miles down the road they have had downpours for about half an hour but not a single drop for us!!!! We can hear the thunder... That is the worst kind of tease.

We're up in Grayslake. This drought is unbelievable!!!!

Rain! Yaaaaay!

Where?? Where is it raining? It's NOT raining here, darnnit.

Sorry Taupe. I'm in Joliet, and it has been weeks. We got about an hour-long downpour this morning. Not enough, but I'm grateful for it. Hope yours comes soon.

We had half an inch west of Oswego early this morning. Praise the Lord!

I live in Northbrook and there are cracks in the soil of my garden that are at least 2 inches wide and run for 8-10 feet. When watering, I pour water down these cracks and they never fill up. I have seen some trees wilting from the dryness too.

Big show of thunders & lightnings this morning.....with only a few drops of rain...not even enough to wet the grass.
:-(

My rain gauge says that we got about 5/8" of rain yesterday morning. I was happy to get it, but it looks like the other 9 3/8" that we need is nowhere in sight.
Beautiful day today, though.

I was in SE wisconsin the other night (Lake Geneva area) and it stormed and poured like there was no tomorrow. I have never seen such a huge storm. They must have gotten at least 1.5". Here, in the NW suburbs, we got 0.06".

Chitown

Dry as a bone here, to. It's pretty sad when the prairie plants start drooping. We've been on watering restrictions for a month already in Wauconda, IL. Hopefully, we'll get our break in the weather soon. April