Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head -- The End of the Drought in San Antonio

After enduring an almost two year drought, the rains came to San Antonio in October and early November.  We've picked up about 11 inches of rain in the last few weeks, and our "dead" grass and landscape plantings are coming back to life.  It feels almost like Spring with our wetter weather and cooler temperatures. 

San Antonio's drinking water supply is mainly from the Edwards Aquifer, an enormous underground cavern that holds millions of gallons of water that has been filtered through the layers of limestone beneath our soil.  When the area is suffering through a drought, the level of the water in the aquifer goes down, and we are put on watering restrictions until the levels come back up. 

This week we saw the last restriction lifted and we now have the ability to water our yards when we want to, as long as it is within 8 pm at night until 10 am in the mornings. Previously we were limited further with less hours, and we could only water one day per week. We almost reached the next level where we would have been able to water only one day every two weeks.  That doesn't sound too bad until you realize we had about 60 days this summer where our temperatures topped out over 100 degrees, and at the same time had virtually NO RAIN. Some homeowners lost not only plants and shrubs, but also large trees due to lack of water.


So, things are looking up... more chances for rain this weekend!