Fox_Weather_News's Blog

Get tan on the sand, kick back by the pool, pack the car, and grab the bug spray.  Summertime is officially here.   Though, in some areas, you wouldn't know it.  Persistent showers have kept lawns and gardens watered in the northeast for over a week now.  For some, this pesky rain prompts detours on roads labeled "outdoor summer plans," and those people aren't in the clear, yet.

Studies note that springs on the wetter side signal Lyme disease cases on the higher side two years later.  Prevalent throughout the United States, the northeast houses the most Lyme disease-carrying ticks.

Puzzled by the two years later?  Blame the deer tick.  Infamous as the Lyme disease culprit, its eggs mature for two years until the adult deer ticks finally emerge.  An unusually dry spring can adversely affect the ticks' life cycle because deer ticks don't retain water well after they feed; water must be in the environment to ensure a health tick.  Otherwise, the tick can easily die before laying its eggs.  Fewer eggs now, fewer deer ticks two years from now.

With deer ticks laying eggs primarily in the spring, it may come as no surprise that studies on deer ticks and droughts during the three other seasons didn't show much relation.

In 1975, a perplexing outbreak of juvenile arthritis in Old Lyme, Connecticut, led to discover the disease.

Caught in the early stages, antibiotics cure Lyme disease.

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Drew Anderson

Penn State Meteorologist and Fox Weather Correspondent

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