Each summer, more than a million people visit the area, bringing their boats from May through the end of September, according to volunteers at Youghiogheny River Lake in Somerset County. This year, the season has been shortened, they say.

“We need rain, we need rain badly, and we need rain for a long period of time,” said local volunteer Ray Jakomas. “I’ve never seen the lake this low. It’s down to 30 feet on the road, and it’s usually about 250 feet this time of year.”

Jakomas said he put up markers along the road near the lake last summer to measure water levels, and this year he’s observed levels dropping about 5 feet (1.5 meters) a day. Jakomas added that engineers in Pittsburgh drain the Youghiogheny to improve water flow in area rivers during dry periods.

Volunteer Jim Dorrance explained, “If you look closely at what’s going on right now across the United States, especially in this area, it’s largely due to the lack of rain. There’s no rain in the forecast for the next week or so, so it’s only going to get worse from here on out.”

Jakomas and Dorrance, who have both worked at the lake for over 10 years, said they will remove the majority of public docks by Labor Day to prevent visitors from taking boats onto the water. They said this could cause the area to lose money within the next month.

“Millions of dollars are being spent on these people who have boats and cars and bring boats into the country. That takes a lot of money out of this area. That will definitely impact the businesses here,” Jakomas said.

Both said they could not change the water levels this year, but added they were confident that conditions would be better next summer.

“The water level will eventually balance itself out,” Dorrance said. “We can only hope that something like this doesn’t happen again next year.”

They also explained that visitors would still be able to bring boats to the dam for now, but added that this would not last long.