Texas Heat!

[pacerron]

Ron, your picture of your pond and grass is something that you just don't see around here right now. Most grass is dry and straw-like in appearance. QUOTE]
Jim,
I'll always remember the Texas heat, blazing sun, dryed out grass and the favorite chant of the drill/PT instructor, " If any of you get sick from the heat and have to throw up, you better do it in your cap, not on my drill field."
Ron

 

[jinman]

According to my thermometer, we had another 110+ day, yesterday. That was the reading at 5 PM. By 7 PM, it was all the way down to 108.

I'll try to get a couple of photos of my pond level today and post them. Don't expect to see pretty green grass like Ron's.

BTW: I'm always amazed at the native grasses and little bluestem in particular. When it is dry, the leaves seem to turn reddish brown. It's especially visible in my county along highway ROWs because of the red-brown patches where it has been mowed. As soon as we get a rain, within 2 or 3 days, it will turn silver blue and start to grow. I think it recovers faster than any other native plant. It's sure tough.

 

[RobertBrown]

Right now, I'm using water at a rate much higher than 100k gallons per month. I'll continue to do that as long as the weather gives us scorching heat and no rain. I also water my garden and several flower beds on the day I'm not watering the grass.

I am getting an even distribution of water over my grass as is shown by the condition and color of the grass. After mowing, I do have some less green spots that get sun dried when I cut grass. My mower is set to 4" tall and the grass is deep and thick, but baked by the sun in the unshaded spots. I've very careful to get even distribution of water. The grass would look much greener if I fertilized, but I just don't want to do that in this heat.

100,000 gallons is more than enough water to fill the average swimming pool. It's enough water to fill a 2 car garage, twice.
What would happen if everyone used that much water?
We too have had unprecedented droughts in Florida recently. Our water resrtictions are one day a week, and only at night, with 100$ fine for the first offense.
The idea is to merely keep the grass alive until the rains come. If you used that much water here you better have at least 10 acres of strawberrys or you will need attorney and a huge bank account.

 

[jinman]

We too have had unprecedented droughts in Florida recently. Our water resrtictions are one day a week, and only at night, with 100$ fine for the first offense.

I'm not on a municipal water system. I didn't realize Florida had those kinds of restrictions on rural wells. Even in our cities with restrictions, there is no restriction if you are watering from a private well. Did you miss the part where I said I'm using well water?

Robert, even with a private well, I would not water that much if I weren't just trying to keep my grass alive. My usage is 100k gallons for the months when there is no rain and the heat is 100+. When the rain comes or it cools a bit, I'll use much less. For two months, I'll use 100k gallons and then probably drop back to 25k to 30k gallons per month or less.

 

[AGGIE00]

We've been watering practically all day and night to keep up. I recognize the severity of the drought we are in, but I don't believe aquifers are suffering as bad as they say. Back in the 80s when my family was farming, San Antonio would start restricting water use because the edwards aquifer was depleting and they feared that in 10-20 years with no replinishment it would dry up. Then every year the rains would come and the aquifer would fill up. If we go 10-20 years with no replinishment it won't matter anyway.

 

[jinman]

The face of the drought in N. Tx is becoming quite obvious. While there are far more severe drought conditions in central Tx, the lack of rain has put a straw-brown face on our open grasslands. The browning of the landscape includes areas normally staying green during summer months due to native plants. Here are some pictures of my driveway area and my county road, my ponds, some vegetation (poison oak and bluestem grass) and my lawn around my house that I've been talking about. As you can see, my lawn is alive, but certainly not lush and green in the sun exposed areas.

 

[jinman]

For some reason, I must have exceeded the number of photos allowed and only the last three showed up. Here are the rest of them.

 

[jinman]

Two more. . . poison oak and bluestem.

 

[Car Doc]

Sorry you guys down south are still getting beat up by mother nature we finally got rain in central Kansas this week in 3 x .50 increments and also broke our streak of straight 100 degree days thank GOD so there may be hope for you soon. :thumbsup:

I am thinking it went 35 days straight here its just unbelievable not since the dust bowl days have we had such a drought and unrelenting heat around here sure hope we all get out of it soon.

I sure didn't need to be this close to that dang poison oak though hahaha nice place jinman!

 

[Western]

Jim, your pictures are pretty much the story, I can even see some stress in a couple of your Oak trees, same with mine.

We are very dry, a 1" inch rain would be a band aid right now, but I would take it in a minute. We need a week or two of wet nasty drizzle to really get down, followed by a frog floater!