When your grandfather looked at the ground, the grass not quite as lush as he'd have liked it to have been, and then squinted up into the cloudless sky, he probably muttered the words "dry spell."

The announcement yesterday from the state Department of Environmental Protection called it something else: a drought watch. That's the official designation, wherein authorities ask Pennsylvanians to conserve water, voluntarily reducing water use by 5 percent.

DEP Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty put all 67 counties under the drought watch after rainfall averages across the state were below normal for more than 60 days.

"Two-thirds of our counties are 50 percent or more below their normal precipitation levels," Ms. McGinty said. "The remaining counties are reporting a deficit of at least 25 percent."

Western Pennsylvania is still in pretty good shape. After a January that was wetter than usual, Pittsburgh's rainfall averages in February (1.74 inches) and March (2.12 inches) amounted to about 73 percent of what we usually get.

Erie received about 94 percent.

But the central and eastern parts of the state have been parched, with most areas receiving less than half their usual rainfall. According to John Gresiak, a senior forecaster with AccuWeather in State College, the Philadelphia area had its driest March on record.

"The main culprit was March," Mr. Gresiak said.

And even though the National Weather Service is forecasting rain and possible thunderstorms today and Friday, it probably won't be enough to bring those areas up to where they should be.

"The thing about droughts and rainfall deficits," Mr. Gresiak said, "it's kind of like the government: Once you start a deficit, it's pretty hard to make it up -- especially at this time of year.

"Right now, we're getting out of the time of year when we tend to get the big, widespread soaking rainfall-type storms and into the time of year when you get more of the scattered shower and thunderstorm type systems."

Also, he said, as summer approaches, there's also more and more water being lost through evaporation, agricultural use and plant absorption.

That's what worries those at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

"When we hear the word drought, it is a major concern to us," said bureau spokesman Mark O'Neill. "At this point, I don't think we want to panic. It's still early.

"But April is one of those months when traditionally you do get a lot of rain, so we're hoping that we will get the rain. But we're at this point and it's a concern because we're almost starting behind.

"There's a certain timing when it comes to planting crops," he said. "And [farmers] can't delay it just because conditions are bad. Despite the conditions, they're going to have to move ahead."

Mr. O'Neill said Pennsylvania farmers do most of their planting now and in the next two weeks.

"Obviously, the amount of rain and moisture plays a big factor in how they start the season. It all can have a big impact on how their crops grow throughout the entire year," he said.

Few others, however, may have noticed the dry conditions. Louis Hahn, owner of Hahn Nursery on Babcock Boulevard in the North Hills, said the drought watch was news to him and his customers.

"People were quite shocked," he said. "They were saying, 'Didn't we just have rain last week?' Which we did."

Nursery manager Laurie Curl said a drought watch this early in the year catches homeowners before they get into their serious yard and garden work.

"They're just getting started," she said. "And that's for two reasons. It's been unusually cold. This is the first warm week we've had. And also because Easter is so late this year. People have a tendency to not think about spring planting or getting in their garden until after Easter. That kind of reminds them."

DEP spokesman Ron Ruman acknowledged that the drought watch is nothing to panic about. The state would just like to see the average family, which uses about 62 gallons of water a day, save three gallons a day.

"Nobody's in a serious situation. This is just a watch," he said. "We're asking for folks to help us avoid a more serious situation if precipitation levels don't return to more normal levels.

If the situation worsens, the state might be prompted to call a drought warning. That, in a worst-case scenario, would be followed by the governor declaring a drought emergency.

"The first people who would be impacted are those with private wells, some of which aren't particularly deep," Mr. Ruman said. "The last time we had an emergency, those were the folks who ran into some problems."

Al Pinkerton, owner of Al's Water Service in Washington, Pa., remembers those days well -- the summers of 1988 and 1991, and again in 1999.

"It is a little dry," said Mr. Pinkerton, who blamed the dryness on the lack of snow this past winter. He said he's already seeing some rural wells "start to dry up a little early."

"But we're dealing with it," he said. "Still, it's going to get bad if we don't see some change soon. Let's see how it is in a month."

That's what Pennsylvania's Drought Task Force will be discussing when its nine members meet Friday. The task force, made up of state officials and representatives from the Public Utility Commission, state police, military affairs and the National Weather Service, is the group that recommends when the governor should declare a drought emergency and the mandatory water restrictions that entails.