Watering the Lawn
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook.

Concern about water use is not just confined to well known hot spots in the west or south. The nation's midsection has also had its share of water starved periods. Last year, for example, 24 counties in South Dakota qualified for federal loans because of extreme heat and drought. Officials in South Dakota are concerned about drought this year and in Sioux City, residents are being asked to water their beloved lawns sparingly. Curt Nickish reports.

It's 11:30 in the morning, and this sprinkler system is spitting water over an immaculate lawn in Sioux Falls. In half an hour, the chatter will have to come to a stop to comply with city regulations. Public Works Director, Lyle Johnson, says watering in the hot afternoon is wasteful.

"Lawn watering between the hours of noon and five is putting water out when evaporation is the highest".

It turns out that the midwest with its lush green fields of corn and soy beans doesn't get as much water as you would think. University of South Dakota history professor, Herbert Hoover, says that the scarcity of water wasn't lost to the first settlers of the great plains.

"When Lewis and Clark came through they talked about it's desert-like character. Steven H. Long made a formal official trip up here in 1819 and his cartographer stamped across the Great Plains, "Great American Desert".

Today some prairie folk can tap into aquifers, but most farmers tend to depend on the weather to bring the precipitation they need. Now cities like Sioux Falls have to issue watering restrictions to keep from outgrowing the water supply.

That's correspondent Curt Nickish of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory.