Some of Maryland's best trout streams have dried into trickles that connect small muddy puddles of water. In Shenandoah National Park, rangers have banned fires at campsites for fear that one wayward spark could ignite the bone-dry Blue Ridge forests.

But it's the parched Potomac River that most concerns officials who control the Washington region's primary drinking water source. Watching days of cloudless skies pass, they worry that continued rainless forecasts in the mid-Atlantic region could lead to a drought watch.

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