HELENA - The numbers may vary slightly, but the message is the same. Montana's drought conditions are putting a squeeze on agricultural and natural resources across the board.
Marvin Kimmet, a farmer and rancher in Glacier County, summed it up.
"We don't cause the drought, we just try to alleviate the condition as best we can," he said.
But it's tough to alleviate the conditions when you can't control them. Despite what the numbers may say. "Statistically, if you look at the water year, the water year is going to come in with a pretty near average number for the state as a whole," explained Gina Loss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "But if you really dig deeper into those numbers, you're going to see that when we needed the moisture most for some of our crops, the water just wasn't there."
Reservoirs may fill back up after a few good rains, but the effects of low precipitation and fast-melting snow packs is long lasting. "The ground water situation and any well struggles that people have, those take longer to recover from," Loss added.
Now the committee is working on translating the official statistics to understandable, usable information for affected industries.
"There are farmers who are third generation wheat farmers and they like planting wheat. But if we don't have enough moisture to support a wheat crop, maybe we have to think about other crops," said Lieutenant Governor John Bohlinger, the committee's chairman. "And we can't tell them what to plant, but we can certainly advise."
Farmers and ranchers are feeling the heat of dry land.
"The haying conditions were extremely poor so there'll be a need for additional hay," Kimmet said. "That's an expense to the rancher. And water. We've had springs that we've lost in the past 2 years that have flown for over 50 years."
A key focus of the Drought Advisory committee is the effects the current conditions have on everyone.
They say state agencies across the spectrum are seeing the effects of dry, hot weather. From increased watches for fires and fish to dwindling snow packs and strained crop yields.