AUGUSTA — The land is so dry from lack of rain that the state has activated its Drought Task Force to monitor conditions.

Before Aug. 4, that task force hadn’t met since 2002; it didn’t have to.

The task force was not aware of any town or city issuing water-use constrictions, but experts are recommending that people use less, especially homeowners with private wells.

“We’re dry in the state of Maine,” said Maine Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Susan Faloon. Maine isn’t as dry as Massachusetts where  restrictions have been enforced, but Maine is abnormally dry.

“We’re on it,” Faloon said. “We have experts statewide watching it.” The group is meeting again in early September.

How dry it is depends on where you live.

York County is suffering severe drought conditions; Cumberland is in a moderate drought. “It’s starting to creep up,” Faloon said.

Drought categories also include extreme and exceptional, the two worst, respectively.

In Western and Central Maine, including Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, it’s abnormally dry.

In northern Maine conditions are normal, Faloon said.

Walt Whitcomb, commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation, said northern Maine farms are getting plenty of rain, some too much.

Farms in central and southern Maine need rain badly.

Whitcomb said the lack of rain is affecting his Belfast farm.

“Everything’s brown,” he said. Pasture grass isn’t growing on his dairy farm. His alfalfa crops are smaller than normal. Corn is surviving, but it’s wilting. “If we don’t get rain, it could kill that crop,” he said.

The condition is more challenging for smaller farms without irrigation. Conditions aren’t critical, Whitcomb said, “but it’s on the cusp of being critical.”

The U.S. Geological Survey monitors groundwater in Augusta, Lewiston-Auburn, Poland and Sanford.

“We’re measuring some of the lowest levels we’ve seen in the last 20 to 30 years,” said Nicholas Stasulis. “They’re really, really low,” on their way to breaking records.

Groundwater and wells typically are at their lowest levels in October, before the winter snow and spring rain refills them, he said. “If nothing changes, if we get no more precipitation,” low water levels will break 2002 records, the last time Maine was this dry, Stasulis said.

A small or quick thunderstorm won’t “recharge” groundwater, he said. “We need a prolonged period of rain, for days. Three inches wouldn’t help saturate the ground.”

The dryness is due in part to last winter’s lack of snow. “We started behind the curve,” he said. Rain was below normal in the spring, and the summer has been dry.

In recent weeks, forecasts have called for scattered showers and thunderstorms, but often it clouds up, no rain falls and the sun reappears.

“Only 30 percent of the state has seen anything measurable,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Sinsabaugh. “Conditions remain still very dry.”

Stasulis said he was not aware of any warnings or water restrictions issued in Maine. Homeowners on private wells may want to plan their water use.

It’s smart for all homeowners to conserve and use common sense:

* Take shorter showers.

* Don’t let the water run when brushing your teeth.

* Don’t keep your garden hose going all day; in fact, ignore that brown lawn.

Watering your lawn “does nothing except make your lawn look pretty,” Stasulis said.