Lehigh Valley utility providers are asking or ordering customers to conserve water as Lehigh and Northampton counties remain under a state Drought Watch to start 2026.

The U.S. Drought Monitor website at drought.gov says all of Northampton County is under a drought, with 79.3% of the county considered in severe drought and the southernmost 20.7% under moderate drought.

Lehigh County, the federal monitor says, is split about even between severe and moderate drought — again with the most dire conditions across the county’s northern communities.

Some relief is expected, according to the National Weather Service, though it won’t come close to erasing precipitation deficits that have lingered since fall 2024.

Rain is expected to develop Wednesday afternoon as a warm front lifts northward through the area, then taper off in the evening, totaling less than one-tenth of an inch.

“Now, it is light rain showers — it’s not anything heavy,” meteorologist Bobby Martrich said in a forecast video Tuesday for his Lehigh Valley-based EPAWA Weather Consulting LLC. “So I don’t want you to get excited, thinking, ‘Oh, well, we’re going to have rain clearing out all the salt we have all over the place.’”

A low pressure system crossing the area Friday will bring another round of rain. Some mixed precipitation and light icing are possible from the I-78 corridor northward, with the I-80 corridor in the Poconos having the highest potential for light icing impacts. New rainfall amounts are expected to be around a half-inch across the region.

MORE: Lehigh Valley weather: Fog clearing, rain arrives midweek

As of Tuesday, the weather service’s climate station at Lehigh Valley International Airport had recorded just 0.12 of an inch of precipitation for the first half of February. That’s 92% less than the normal 1.55 inches month-to-date.

Since Jan. 1, the weather service reports 2.64 inches of precipitation at the airport outside Allentown — a little more than half of the normal 4.85 inches through mid-February.

Since Sept. 1, 2024, the airport has recorded 58.15 inches of precipitation — about two-thirds of the normal 86.26 inches for that period through mid-February 2026.

Pennsylvania’s Drought Watch covers 40 counties: Adams, Beaver, Bedford, Berks, Bradford, Butler, Cambria, Carbon, Chester, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Cumberland, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Tioga, Union, Venango, and Washington. Fulton County is in Drought Warning.

The Lehigh County Authority on Feb. 1 asked its customers to “take immediate steps to conserve water and remain alert for signs of potential leaks.”

And American Water on Feb. 4 issued a mandatory 10-15% water conservation order for its 3,700 or so customers in Northampton County’s Bangor and Roseto boroughs and Plainfield, Upper Mount Bethel and Washington townships.

Looking ahead to next weekend, a significant winter storm is possible Sunday as low pressure deepens and slides west to east, exiting off the northern Mid-Atlantic coast. This system has potential for accumulating widespread snowfall across the region, though the exact track remains uncertain.