If you answered "No" to this question, don't feel bad--after all, it is November, and we're not yet in a full-blown drought. But if you think back to October, despite the weather forecasters calling for rain every weekend, at best it drizzled on some of those days. In fact, for the entire month, we received less than one inch of rain.
So why don't we see the lack of moisture taking a toll on the turf now? There are several factors which contribute to the difference in how grass responds to dry periods in the fall, versus during the summer months. Obviously, the temperature is one of these, but in addition to that, the number of hours of daylight, the angle of the Sun, and the turf's root length all play a role.
In looking at the data from our weather station, even on bright, sunny days in the fall, the moisture loss is only a fraction of what we see every day of the summer. Additionally, when the frost melts, the heavy dew will provide some water.
A low pond level this time of year is unusual, and speaks to the dry conditions we've seen since the beginning of October.
Another indicator of how dry it's been is that we experienced zero No Cart days in October, which hasn't happened since 2008. One thing is for sure, if this lack of rain occurred in July, we would be dragging hoses, scrambling to keep the stressed turf going.
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