A moderate drought in southwestern Ohio and a lack of rainfall throughout the state have caused stress for farmers.

But it's still early enough for the weather to turn around and produce a good crop, Joe Cornely, spokesman for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, said yesterday.

"I don't think that anyone says it's a disaster yet, but it's an anxious time."

Although southern Ohio is the only area officially experiencing a moderate drought, the dry weather is being felt all over the state, Cornely said.

Farmers don't care if it's called a drought, he said, they just care about the impact.

A drought is difficult to define, said Stephen Hrebenach, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington. The major component is a deficit of rainfall over a period of time, but it also includes soil and crop moisture as well as past rainfall, he said.

"You can't say, 'Five inches below normal; we're in a drought.' "

There likewise are no clear signals about the rainfall the state might get over the summer, he said. At the moment, the rainfall has equal chances of being above, below or about normal.

Columbus and the rest of central Ohio are abnormally dry for this time of year, according to the Drought Monitor, a partnership of government, academic and scientific organizations that determines drought conditions across the country.

Columbus has had more precipitation this year than normal -- 18.5 inches through yesterday compared with a normal average of 16.6 inches.

Columbus is pumping a normal average of 170 million gallons of water per day from its reservoirs, said Rick Tilton, assistant public-utilities director for the city.

There are no water restrictions at the moment and no plans to impose them, Tilton said.

Cornely said one thing helping the farmers it that high temperatures in most areas have been only in the 70s and 80s, which helps keep the soil and plants from drying out.

That could change this weekend in the Columbus area. The high is expected to be 90 degrees or more on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Cornely said he doesn't want to give the impression that every farmer is having trouble. Some places look just like a garden patch, he said, noting that rainfall can vary from to place to place.

"Farmers are accustomed to dealing with the weather."

bwroten@dispatch.com