OTSEGO COUNTY — Otsego County was considered part of roughly 5 percent of the state in severe drought, according to the most recent updates in last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor.
Both the moderate and severe drought conditions are atypical for Northern Michigan in a region that may show “abnormally dry” conditions but rarely actual drought compared with the U.S. Drought Monitor’s maps of recent years.
The last time Otsego County experienced drought conditions was in 2010 and it was considered a moderate drought.
The last year Otsego County saw severe drought conditions was in 2007.
He said as of Monday, Gaylord was still about 2 inches below average in rainfall so far this month.
Lutz said Gaylord has basically been dry all summer.
“For the last three months, which is the meteorological summer, we are down a little over 3.5 inches since June,” he said.
“That’s really what we need to break us out of the drought.
Really, to get things to start improving, we need to get several good steady rains that could be an inch plus over the next several weeks.” Prior to the weekend rain, Gaylord was down 4 inches compared to normal average August precipitation.
VIDEO: Michigan’s late August drought conditions through the years at a glance Watch again VIDEO: Michigan’s late August drought conditions through the years at a glance Watch again

OTSEGO, Mich.– A community advocacy group in Allegan County held a public meeting Saturday morning about health problems potentially caused by contamination in their drinking water.
Members of the Justice for Otsego group believe the cancer cluster in their county may be tied to the city’s drinking wells being tainted by years of dumping from local businesses.
"It’s really just a matter of getting the government agencies activated and focused on this issue," congressional candidate George Franklin (D) tells FOX 17.
"It’s real, it’s significant and something needs to be done."
The group has called on the EPA and MDEQ to investigate what’s caused so many in their community to have unexpected cases of cancer.
The City of Otsego said previously that water is not the source of these health problems.
"I think the first thing is we gotta figure out what is going on exactly and where the source of the contamination is," former Kalamazoo County Commissioner Peter Battani tells FOX 17.
"I think that’s the first order of business and then we have to fix it."
The group’s efforts have not gone unnoticed.
Federal and state officials plan to investigate and release their test results in the coming days.

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Officials from the Department of Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency, Allegan County Health Department and Michigan Department of Health were at the town hall-style meeting to field questions and address the concerns of its residents.
“My goal is to get the community together to wave our red flag to the health department,” said Mary Zack, Founder of Justice for Otsego.
“Please help us, please come in, please look at what’s going on, and if you agree there is something going on, which we all know there is, help us find the source.” Citizens blamed the health problems multiple residents are experiencing on years of pollution by paper mills in the Kalamazoo River.
The mills dumped waste in the river, causing contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls, also known as PCBs, which the EPA says can have “harmful health effects.” The initiative started when Zack found an article about the Kalamazoo River pollution and started connecting dots on her own.
She found people had rare diseases, cancers and reproductive issues when she posted a survey on the Justice for Otsego Facebook page.
Last October, the EPA signed off on a five-year, $46 million plan to clean up the contamination caused by the old Allied Paper Mill.
Officials at the meeting said they will take input from the community, develop a plan to determine what is causing health problems for Otsego residents and determine exactly what is in the water supply.
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