While this weekend's scattered thunderstorms provided some much-needed rain to parched earth and brown lawns throughout the Upstate, they were far from sufficient to cure the region's water woes.

As neighboring counties all around Cherokee County keep close tabs on their water supplies, Gov. Mark Sanford on Friday urged Upstate residents to cut back on their own to hopefully curtail the need for statemandated restrictions in the future.

"Whether or not you're being impacted right now with any restrictions, it's important for people to know that this drought situation is very real and that folks in the Upstate, particularly farmers, are hurting right now," the governor said in a prepared statement.

Last Wednesday, according to the governor's office, Sanford asked the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to declare all but two South Carolina counties federal disaster areas. More than 30 percent of this year's harvest of corn, hay and pasture crops have already been lost, according to Sanford's office.

While some water systems in the Upstate have already implemented conservation measures, Cherokee County residents served by the Gaffney Board of Public Works face no mandatory restrictions but are being asked to voluntarily cut back.

BPW General Manager Donnie Hardin reiterated on Friday that mandatory restrictions aren't likely as long as the BPW can continue to replenish the Lake Whelchel reservoir with water from the Broad River.

"I don't know the answer to that," Hardin conceded when asked about the point at which drawing from the Broad River would no longer be possible.

The BPW's intake on the Broad River is located in a pool below the Dravo Dam. The BPW can keep pumping as long as the intake remains below the water surface.

The Broad River itself, however, is facing challenges of its own.

Data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey Office in Columbia shows the river was just 1.85 feet at a measuring gauge near Blacksburg on Friday morning and that river levels have remained steadily below the twofoot mark for much of the past week. Indeed, river levels have only risen for very brief periods in the past 20 days, attributable to short-duration rainfalls.

U.S.G.S. data further shows the river's discharge rate in Blacksburg, a measure of the amount of water flowing downstream, is far lower than 10-year averages. The discharge rate measured just 157 cubic feet per second near Blacksburg on Friday, compared to the 10-year average discharge rate of 1,240 cubic feet per second.

"We got some good rains at the beginning of the year and everyone put the drought on the back burner," said John Shelton, a hydrologist who serves as associate director of U.S.G.S. South Carolina Water Science Center.

Today's water woes, however, actually have roots back to the early part of the decade when another major drought hit the Upstate. The groundwater table has remained low since then and the current lack of rain means the groundwater table isn't recharging.

The end result, Shelton said, "We're seeing gauges now that have been in operation, probably close to 100 years that are seeing record lows and experiencing water flows we've never seen before."

A key example of this can be seen in a U.S.G.S. graph detailing 82 years worth of flow rates for the Broad River as recorded near Boiling Springs, N.C., just upriver from Cherokee County. That graph shows the Broad River's flow rates setting, or at least headed for, record lows.

The Upstate isn't alone. The U.S.G.S. data shows drought conditions over a wide area from the Upstate to western North Carolina and a large portion of Georgia — forming a big bull's-eye over the tri-state region.

The U.S.G.S. does not set policy or regulate water usage. It simply collects and scientifically analyzes data.

Getting the region back to normal wouldn't be easy, Shelton said. "A few days (of rain) isn't going to cut it," he said. "We could use rain every day for the next six months."