You should love Denver's Rain (landscaping, live in, costs)

[Legs1357]

Originally Posted by xeric

Just curious: I know that the "10 year drought" is the conventional wisdom, but out of the 25+ years I've lived in CO there's only been watering restrictions once (in most Front Range cities) and that was in 2002. So how can you have a severe drought when there has been almost no impact on most Colorado residents?

That's not true, the city of Aurora's had watering restrictions of some kind for the past 6 years at least. And it's gotten better but there was a point when several key water sources were down to like 50%, I saw Lake Dillon 6-7 years ago when it was really down...there were large sandbars of the lake exposed that probably hadn't seen daylight in 100 years

[Katarina Witt]

Louisville has had watering restrictions as well in several years past. 2002 was the worst, and the most restrictive.

[Kibbiekat]

I have been enjoying the green and not having to pay to run the sprinklers. The rain did get in the way of some activities that week, though. Not even a warm summer rain, but a pretty cold-for-summer rain.

[xeric]

I dropped the ball on this one. I looked up watering restrictions in CO Front Range cities and found that roughly half of them had some sort of watering restrictions (as of 2008). Usually it was limiting summer watering usage to 3 days per week although Denver's watering restrictions simply forbid watering during the daytime hours. However, these limitations make complete sense to me and certainly can't be described as a hardship.

[denverian]

I've enjoyed the rain and thunderstorms this summer. I really love going to sleep while listening to thunder. This week feels more like hot, dry, Southwestern weather though. My grass already has a few dry spots.

I really miss the rain here in winter, since it doesn't rain from what - mid October until almost mid April?

[cpm725]

i enjoyed the rain, it's always quite hot here in the summer.

[chilaili]

Who's complaining?! I'm loving the rain.

[Nav]

Rain is Good Especially when its accompanied by dark fast moving clouds. It brings the whole front range to life. Clear blue sky's are ok for a while, but its really nice to get a bit of atmospheric scenery for a change.

Now, if the rainy weather patterns hold throughout the rest of the year, hold on, cause its going to be a snowy winter!

Nav

[cpm725]

Or a warm/dry winter considering our summer has been wetter than usual.........

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Calix

I find complaining about the weather, particularly rain in dry western states to be profoundly selfish and a reflection of a corrupt and narcissistic worldview that thinks nothing about the greater world around them but only the hedonistic indulgences of today.

I don't know - I see another side to it. It seems like a lot of people here have trouble accepting the fact that the constant sunshine that so many love is directly correlated with shrubs, grasses, and (a limited number of) trees that are adapted to dry conditions. Let me ask you this: do you like the chaparral that is the natural vegetation in your area or would you prefer it look more like an eastern deciduous forest? I've met a lot of people in Colorado who seem to dislike the natural vegetation that surrounds their cities. Sure, most of them like the wetter mountains at 8000+ feet, but the "lowlands" are just brown, empty spaces to be traversed as quickly as possible. So when people say they love all of the rain we've had this year I always ask myself: do they appreciate the rain because it is so rare, or have they simply refused to acquire an appreciation of the dry environment in which most of them live?