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With his rubber boots on, Ian Cooke wades out into the middle of the Neponset River in Norwood to show just how low the water has dropped.

Cooke, with the Neponset Watershed Association, says says conditions are not as bad as the drought of 2016 when the Neponset River nearly ran dry, but we could soon be in that situation.

"I think in a month, the end of the summer, we could be," Cooke said. "The flow here right now is about twice the lowest flow that has ever been recorded. But that's still pretty low."

Along with the Neponset, the Ipswich River and the Charles River at Waltham are also running low, according to federal water gauges.

The North Nashua in Fitchburg and the Weir River in Hingham are at record low levels for this date.

"Definitely, the stream flows are being hit hard," Anne Carroll, with the Massachusetts Office of Water Resources said. "You see that first and then you see it reflected in the groundwater level."

About half the state's local water districts have started implementing restrictions.

For example, limiting how many days per week people can water their yards.

Fire departments are also feeling the impact, not in the number of wildfires, which so far this year is about average, but rather in how deep those fires are burning underground.

"When they burn down deeper, it simply requires more water, it requires more overhaul," Chief Neil McPherson with the Wayland fire department said. "It's keeping our crews for a longer period of time."

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