Pity the Pennsylvania weatherman. He can't win.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette The rain guage at Murrysville Golf Club in Murrysville measured 7/10ths of an inch from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning. Golf course employee Greg Rager, right, said the rain is good because they don't have to run sprinklers, but bad because golfers stay home. Click photo for larger image. Check the latest forecast

The guy at the golf course wants a break from the rain. The farmers say we could still use a little more. And government officials in Harrisburg insist that the state is still under a drought watch.

Even if the forecast is right, somebody's miffed.

Most people in Western Pennsylvania probably welcomed the sunshine that broke through yesterday after a solid week of clouds and rain. Jack Kerrigan, director of Murrysville Golf Club, sure did. It was costing him money.

"Once in a while is OK," he said, "but five straight days of it is not good in any way, shape or form."

The rain has its upside, of course. It keeps the grass on the course nice and lush, and keeps down the cost of having to irrigate. But by yesterday afternoon Mr. Kerrigan had had enough.

"Losing a week's worth of business is pretty substantial," he said.

Fortunately, Murrysville Golf Club and other courses in our region got a head start this year. Thanks to a mild winter, they made some money as golfers were able to get out in December and January.

"Pittsburgh weather being what it is, you just never know from year to year what you're going to get," Mr. Kerrigan said.

Still, there are expectations. And even with a week of rain, Pennsylvania's precipitation levels are falling short of them.

The state Department of Environmental Protection declared a "drought watch" April 11 after 60 days of below-normal rainfall. Yesterday, DEP spokesman Ron Ruman said Pennsylvania's situation hasn't changed.

"We've gotten some rain and people are wondering if it's enough," he said. "Well, we are still in the drought watch, and we're planning no change in that status, at least for now."

The drought watch -- the first level before a "drought warning" and the more drastic "drought emergency" -- means authorities are still urging Pennsylvanians to cut their water usage by 5 percent.

"Groundwater and stream flows are still at pretty low levels [as we head] into what is more typically the drier part of the year," Mr. Ruman said. "After May, vegetation is getting ready to pop, and that sucks up a lot more groundwater.

"We've had a couple of good soaking rains and some more showers, so it's been a help. And it has raised surface water in many areas, and in some areas there has been some recovery. But there are still areas where we're still pretty low."

Data from the U.S. Geological Survey for the 60-day period from March 18 to May 16 shows that all 67 counties in the state continued to have below-average rainfall. Allegheny County, with 4.9 inches of rain, was still 2.1 inches off its average mark. Similar shortfalls were recorded in surrounding counties. A week's worth of rain won't wash that away, Mr. Ruman said.

With that in mind, the state Drought Task Force, which met in Harrisburg last week, is staying the cautionary course.

Not only did the recent rainfall not solve our problems; it created some.

Duquesne Light spokesman Joe Balaban said the company dealt with isolated power outages last night because of the high level of moisture in the soil.

A landslide on the North Side knocked down wires around 6 p.m., causing 35 customers to lose power. Two trees in Carrick uprooted and slid into a set of power lines, causing the wires to short-circuit, resulting in 830 customers losing power around 5:30 p.m. Mr. Balaban said power was restored almost two hours later.

In West Mifflin, underground wires, deluged by water in the soil, may have caused a transformer to fail.

"These are individual incidents and not widespread," said Mr. Balaban.

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau spokesman Mark O'Neill is among those grateful for the rainfall.

"It's a lot better now than April," he said. "The amount of rain we've gotten last week and this past weekend ... we're not hearing the stress from the farmer that we were hearing last month.

"Things have not gotten worse."

That's important, Mr. O'Neill said, because farming in Pennsylvania is a vital but delicate balance of weather.

"Last year was a good example," he said. "Some areas had perfect weather, but other parts of southwestern Pennsylvania were almost in a drought situation. One county wouldn't be getting the rain that the next county over was getting.

"There's always exceptions with the weather in Pennsylvania."