(ABC 6 News) – The dry fall has allowed people to get out and enjoy the sunshine, and farmers to get into their fields. The lack of rain, however, is being felt across the region, and beyond.

Kenneth Blumenfield, senior Climatologist with the Minnesota DNR, says that the rapid onset of the drought has certainly grabbed his attention, as well as the scope of the drought.

“The thing that jumps out at me about it is how widespread across almost the whole us the dry conditions were.”

Locally, that dryness can be seen in localized wildfires and lakes and rivers running low. Almost all of Minnesota and Iowa watersheds are in a “drought watch” according to the Minnesota and Iowa Department of Natural Resources. This is not just an issue this year, but has been for the last several.

“We had four years of significantly dry weather,” said Timothy Hall, who works as the Hydrology Resource Coordinator, “so the system, so, soil, groundwater, shallow groundwater, deeper groundwater, the whole system is pretty dry.”

Luckily for farmers like Jay and Tammy Clark, who own Apples-R-Us…this fall’s drought really kicked in at the end of the growing season.

“We did not have a yield problem, we had plenty of moisture, the trees gave a bountiful crop”.

That isn’t to say they still haven’t had issues with the dry weather. Jay and Tammy have been hard at work planting a large section of their orchard with new, young apple trees. With the dry weather, these young trees, have been struggling.

“Those trees were gonna die with this weather, so we had to drag out our old sprinklers and hoses, like we when we started the orchard fifteen years ago before we had drip irrigation, and we have been irrigating the young trees so they will be good to start in the spring”

If the dry conditions continue, the real problem will come next spring for those without irrigation systems. DNR specialists and local farmers have emphasized the importance of getting rain into the ground before it freezes.

Winter snowfall is important, but most of the water in the snow is limited and runs off into rivers in the spring before it has a chance to soak into the ground. If we don’t get plenty of rain before winter hits, it could mean a continuation of the drought next growing season, which many are already beginning to prepare for.

“Even though it’s fall, and even though the crops are out of the ground, at least people are thinking oh what if this continues, what am I going to do and how are we going to react to that”.

This is a less-than-ideal situation of course, and is something that Jay and Tammy hope they and other farmers don’t have to deal with.

“Orchards that don’t have irrigation systems may be effected in the spring. You know, when bud set comes on the trees, it’s all about moisture”.