Sprinklers in the summer heat

I read about the dramatic impact of the lack of rain in Europe.  My newsfeed is filled with stories about a dried of Donau, nuclear power plants that need to be shut down because there is not enough cooling water, shipping that comes to a halt because water levels are too low and boat wrecks that come up to the surface.  For farmers this must be hard, they need water to keep their crops healthy.  Tourists will enjoy the warm weather will not be able to go swimming or boating in their favorite swimming spots.  The firefighters that are battling the forest fires raging all over Europe need water as well.  I wonder if the lack of rain impacts the firefighting efforts.

Southern California has its periods of drought as well, but for now I have not found any reports of water shortages in the press.  We had a decent amount of snowfall in the mountains this winter.  I am sure the water companies have filled up their reservoirs when the melting water came rushing down from the mountains.  More worrying is the lack of snowfall in the Rocky Mountains last winter.  They had a miserable winter season in Colorado and that will affect the water supply to California from the Colorado River.  I have not read stories about the impact of a drought several states away on our water availability.  Nobody is telling us to save water or to not water our plants.  Meteorologists talk about the impacts of El Nino on the weather patterns in California.  They claim that we will be able to count on a wet winter, maybe we do not need to worry about depleting water reserves knowing that there will be plenty of rain to come.

But even if there is no impending drought, we should not be spilling water either.  I went on my usual Friday evening tour, leaving our house around 4 pm.  My trail takes me past our local orange grove and along an area with shrubbery and low plants to the reservoir at the lowest end of the town.  I was really surprised to see water spouts in the distance when on my walk.  The gardeners employed by our town scheduled watering for this part of the town in the afternoon, when the sun was still blazing.  I do not know a lot about gardening, but I do know that the best time to run sprinklers is in the morning.  That allows the ground and the plants to absorb the water before the sun's intensity increases.  50% of the water will evaporate when watering during the hottest part of the day.  I have the sprinklers in our backyard running at 6:30 am.  Why the professional gardeners of Ladera Ranch do not follow that rule, I do not know. Maybe someone set the times wrong and was confused between am and pm.