Tennesse Town Runs Out of Water

[Flagg]

That's small potatos compared to people who water their lawns even when it's raining.

You know, it might just be that for as long as I can remember that there's been drought conditions, but I don't think I've ever seen someone water a lawn.

When I was in FL we would water it maybe once a week if it hadn't rained. But that was just to keep it alive. If the lawn totally died you could actually get fined.

[His Divine Shadow]

Bullshit. Fill one sink with soapy water, the other one with just water and start washing dishes from the least dirty (typically glasses) to the dirtiest. Rinse them in the clean water sink and then put them out to dry. This uses a fuckload less water than a typical dishwasher and you can do the dishes of a five person family easy without needing to use anymore. Doing dishes by hand does not require water to be running the whole time. My family did things this way for well over 20 years and my parents still do it that way because they do not have a dishwasher. I do, and I haven't used it once, because a two person household takes a week to accumulate enough dishes to justify using it.

Me and my GF is a two person household and we can run our dishwasher 2 or even 3 times a week. Not that we have water issues in Finland though.

Still I've also heard that modern dishwashers are more efficient than hand washing, never seen any numbers but it's quite a widespread idea.

[His Divine Shadow]

That's small potatos compared to people who water their lawns even when it's raining.

You know, it might just be that for as long as I can remember that there's been drought conditions, but I don't think I've ever seen someone water a lawn.

When I was in FL we would water it maybe once a week if it hadn't rained. But that was just to keep it alive. If the lawn totally died you could actually get fined.

My parents have lawn bigger than most football fields and they've never ever needed to water it. Is it that little rainfall in places like these?

[The Dark]

You know, it might just be that for as long as I can remember that there's been drought conditions, but I don't think I've ever seen someone water a lawn.

When I was in FL we would water it maybe once a week if it hadn't rained. But that was just to keep it alive. If the lawn totally died you could actually get fined.

My parents have lawn bigger than most football fields and they've never ever needed to water it. Is it that little rainfall in places like these?

There's fairly heavy rainfall (48.4 inches/year [123cm] where I live), but also heavy solar radiation drying out the grass. The grasses we use (often Augustinegrass variants) also tend to be slightly more water-intensive to grow, due to poor soil conditions (high salt content, alkaline soil, sandy soil). Bahiagrasses use less water, but can't survive sandy or alkaline environments, and winterkill at higher temperatures than Augustine.

Augustine needs at least 30 inches per year to survive (and more to remain green), which we do fall below often - the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation can skew our water table by 40%. During the first five months of the year, South Florida only received 7 inches of rain, well below average.

Without significant soil changes (which aren't really possible), Florida grasses will be more water-intensive due to their need to overcome poor soil and high temperatures.