Texas Drought 2011 (Houston, Dallas, Beaumont: 2013, insurance, live in)

[kreeyax]

Originally Posted by westhou

It hasn't really been that bad. We have had some rain down here. Once every few weeks we get some isolated storms. About 2 weeks ago we had a freak severe thunderstorm move through the Memorial Area. Alief took a beating from that storm as well.

Are you kidding? It really is THAT bad. I'm in Cypress and it's only rained at my house one time since January. Once every few weeks?? It must keep missing me.

[neddy]

Well, in the Hill Country we need rain and need it bad. So far this drought is the 3rd worst in history and 98% of the state is under a drought. Several nice tropical waves would do a world of good for most of the state. Everything seems to be crisping up nicely and just right for fires now! For the folks that are just now getting water restrictions yall are lucky I fear we are about to hit Stage 3 and that is watering one every two weeks...bye bye yard time to zeriscape!

[Cathy4017]

It WOULD make a lot more sense for the more arid regions of Texas (West/Panhandle, maybe the drier parts of Central) to go to xeriscaping.

Some of the newer construction in my old subdivision in Midland has put in rock/xeriscaping in the front...and I'm sure that some are going, "Ewww!! Where's the grass?!?"

My mowing and yardwork here in NM takes about an hour a week, period, and even less if I choose to mow every 10 days or so. I don't miss all that at all. I just had the dead lawn in front removed, and am in the process of choosing low-water plants. It will sit for awhile (gravel) until I decide what to do with it.

Texas (in some areas) would do well to follow. It doesn't even have to be majority gravel/rock......you can choose xeriscaping shrubs, flowering plants and even some types of grass if you can't stand the sterile look of rock.

[EasilyAmused]

That storm that moved through "Memorial" was patchy. My house hasn't had rain since a whimpy storm in March that was more rumble than moisture.. And before that it's been Feb. since my lawn saw any real rain

[Dallaz]

It's gonna rain in DFW tomorrow, but storms are gonna be severe. I hope other parts of Texas get rain too! :-D

[High_Plains_Retired]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

It WOULD make a lot more sense for the more arid regions of Texas (West/Panhandle, maybe the drier parts of Central) to go to xeriscaping.

Cathy, I can mow my lawn over here near Lubbock with a Ford 8n tractor and a 5' mower in about 20 minutes. It looks like this year I won't have to mow at all. Over here I don't have xeriscaping; I have zeroscaping, weeds, rocks and any bermuda grass that can grow in this heat and dryness. The only things I water are my pear and cherry trees, and this year, a lot of pheasant, quail, song birds, skunks and deer who otherwise have been eating the bark off my locust trees.

I have some xeriscaping at Albuquerque but I find rocks radiate too much heat. I have a small lawn of bermuda grass with the rocks. I used to have Kentucky bluegrass.

[Cathy4017]

Yep, rocks/gravel are hotter.......

I have zeroscaping, weeds, rocks and any bermuda grass that can grow in this heat and dryness.

LOL!!

My small backyard has a mix of bluegrass and fescue--I didn't put it in, and asked the landscaper about bermuda. He said that while you can grow it here, it doesn't do all that well because it's too cold! I had a small back lawn of bermuda in Alamogordo, but not here. This is my first experience with any other lawn than bermuda, so we'll see!

I had common bermuda in Midland, and it would grow anywhere!

We don't have watering restrictions here.

[joqua]

Once upon a time - way back when - as a kid growing up in El Paso...

Everyone had bermuda grass yards, gravel was unheard of (and unsightly), there were never any water restrictions, farmers had ample irrigation water most summers, and the Rio Grande flowed even downstream of El Paso and Juarez, and NOT with sewage discharge either! And the population of El Paso was around 90,000.

About 30 years ago the trend to xeriscaping had taken hold, watering restrictions became an annual event, the Rio Grand stopped flowing downstream from the city except for sewage discharges from Juarez, and farms were largely being paved over to build ever more subdivisions. Now the population stands near 750,000 with Juarez adding over 2 million (by estimates).

IMO, ALL of the world's woes of today can be linked directly to the exponentially growing population worldwide - including climate woes.

[westhou]

Originally Posted by kreeyax

Are you kidding? It really is THAT bad. I'm in Cypress and it's only rained at my house one time since January. Once every few weeks?? It must keep missing me.

It just keeps missing you. My parents live in Cypress and they also have gotten no rain. I have friends who live near Montrose and they said they had a pretty powerful storm hit about a month ago and I didn't get anything Uptown. It's been incredibly spotty but there has been some rain even if you didn't get it. That same day the Memorial area got that freak storm a tornado also hit near Brenham.

[Lee W.]

I just can't stand the thought of going through another summer like we had here in the summer of 2009. It was scary hot-and-dry. I don't think I could bear it again! And the large growing population certainly is part of the whole lack of enough water to get through the droughts scenario! I'm old enough to remember what it was like before the population took off so extremely in Texas.