The Downside of Sunshine

Blue skies, beaming sunshine and perfect beach weather: When will the tyranny end?

As the region's endless summer wears on into October, Washington area residents are looking at their desiccated lawns and withered shrubs with a deepening sense of malaise about the drought.

Frances Louer, a troubled green thumb, tends a garden with thousands of azaleas in Haymarket and scans weather reports eagerly for a sign of rain. "If it comes, we'll welcome it," she said. "If not, what can you do?" The streams on her five-acre property have dried up, she said, and the swamp is so hard now "you can drive a tractor on it."

This year's lack of rain is creating problems large and small, from huge water bills for some avid gardeners to what Heidi Symms of Gainesville calls a bumper crop of certain bugs. Spiders are her arch foe. "I think the bugs like the dry weather," she said while shopping for insecticide at a Southern States gardening store in Manassas.

In the District and across the region's suburbs, residents are adapting to a dry spell that has bedeviled farmers for months. One couple saves on bath water by washing children two-to-a-tub. Others have refused to concede their lawns to nature's whims, watering with abandon. A structural engineer in Alexandria said he's advising homeowners with foundation problems and clay-heavy soils to soak the perimeter of their house as a protective measure.

Although cooler weather is expected today and through the weekend, arid conditions are likely to persist through the end of the month, said Jim DeCarufel, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Sterling office. Only 21 inches of rain has been tallied at Reagan National Airport this year, well below the 31-inch normal total.

"It's going to take widespread wet weather for days to make any dent in the drought," DeCarufel said, "and right now, that's not in the foreseeable future." The record low for annual rainfall is 21.6 inches, set in 1930, he said.

This year's dry conditions have inflicted crop losses as high as 60 percent on farmers in Maryland and Virginia, where state officials have asked for federal drought disaster relief. The dry weather is also starting to afflict suburban residents.

Loudoun County authorities imposed mandatory water restrictions last week, and most of the rest of the region is on a drought watch, with voluntary conservation measures. Residents have been asked to take shorter showers, limit watering of lawns and gardens and turn off the tap while brushing their teeth.

In western Montgomery County, Poolesville residents say they're sensitive to shortages because they depend on well water.

Maggie Nightingale said she always tries to take short showers and keeps an eye on dripping faucets. Since August, she has been taking more precautions.

"We make sure the dishwasher is full when we run it and that the washing machine is full before we do laundry," Nightingale said.