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GREENSBORO — The fountain at Center City Park has become something of a symbol for the season.

Since late June, as temperatures have soared, park officials have had a difficult time keeping kids out of the pools.

Now, as drought conditions worsen across the state, they've turned the fountain off, citing citywide water restrictions that begin Monday.

"We felt we should be proactive and conserve water right now," said Johnny Burris, park manager. "Hopefully, we will get a lot of rain here this week."

The park's conservation effort comes at a time when Gov. Mike Easley has called on North Carolina residents to cut water consumption by 20 percent. Meteorologists say the drought is not expected to ease any time soon.

But there is some good news in the forecast.

The heat wave that has baked the area for more than three weeks may break next week.

"Thank God," said Allan Williams, the city's director of water resources. "That hot weather is just really driving up demand."

Before normal August weather returns, however, the Triad will experience several more days in the 90s. The high should be near 95 today, 99 Saturday and 93 Sunday.

But Monday and Tuesday, the temperature should top out in the upper 80s.

Throughout the next five days, the chance of rain will be 20 to 30 percent. While those numbers aren't especially promising, they're considerably higher than the prospects earlier this month when a dome of high pressure kept the region hot and dry.

"It's going to be a warm weekend," said Jeff Orrock, warning coordinator at the National Weather Service in Raleigh.

"After that ... the pattern is definitely changing."

Orrock said the high pressure system will weaken over the Southeast, allowing some cooler air to filter in. In addition, a high off the coast will increase the possibility of afternoon and evening thunderstorms.

"We're getting back into a more normal type of regime," Orrock said. "We're not going to see any more 100 degree days."

But residents probably won't see sufficient rainfall to mitigate a drought that some officials have begun to compare to one that hit the state from 1998 to 2002.

On Thursday, state officials said drought conditions continued to worsen in central and western North Carolina.

The N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council said that 12 western counties were now experiencing exceptional drought conditions.

That's worse than the extreme drought conditions they had last week.

During the past seven days, counties along the South Carolina border and up into the central Piedmont — including parts of Davidson and Randolph counties — had been downgraded from severe drought to extreme drought.

Guilford, Alamance and Forsyth counties remain in a severe drought.

Easley said Friday that some level of drought had spread to all 100 counties.

"Stream flows and groundwater levels are approaching their lowest levels in recorded history, and reservoirs are declining by one foot every 10 days," Easley said in a news release. "We all must conserve if we are to, in any way, minimize the impact of the drought."

Officials said 21 public water systems statewide had imposed mandatory conservation measures and 59 had called for voluntary curbs.

Williams said Greensboro has less than 150 days of water supply remaining.

And he appreciates Center City Park, which recycles its water, shutting off its fountains.

"When people see a dry fountain, they ask why," Williams said. "It's a great message to send."

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or donpatterson@news-record.com