It's dry out there — drier than normal.
As a result, the regional authority that covers the Tri-Cities is extending current watering restrictions to Oct. 31 as part of efforts to conserve drinking water during the current drought.
Metro Vancouver said this applies to all residential and non-residential properties within its member communities, which includes Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore and Belcarra.
The region is currently in Stage 1 of watering restrictions.
This means local homeowners are limited to watering their lawns to one day a week between 5 and 9 a.m., and what day that is gets determined by property type and address.
The schedule and restrictions are as follows:
Stage 1 residential lawn watering
- Even-numbered addresses
- Saturdays — automatic watering between 5 and 7 a.m., and manual watering between 6 and 9 a.m.
- Odd-numbered addresses
- Sundays — automatic watering between 5 and 7 a.m., and manual watering between 6 and 9 a.m.
- Trees, shrubs and flowers can be watered with a sprinkler any day between 5 and 9 a.m., or any time by hand or using drip irrigation
Stage 1 non-residential lawn watering
- Even-numbered addresses
- Mondays — automatic watering between 4 and 6 a.m., and manual watering between 6 and 9 a.m.
- Odd-numbered addresses
- Tuesdays — automatic watering between 4 and 6 a.m., and manual watering between 6 and 9 a.m.
- Trees, shrubs and flowers can be watered with a sprinkler any day between 4 and 9 a.m., or any time by hand or using drip irrigation
"We need to ensure our current drinking water supply is preserved until the rain returns," said Sav Dhaliwal, chair of Metro Vancouver's board of directors, in a statement.
"We are increasingly seeing unexpected weather patterns due to climate change, and we can’t make assumptions about when the rain will start again."
A spokesperson for Metro Vancouver also told Glacier Media reservoir water levels are within normal ranges, and that the extended restrictions are an effort to keep it that way.
Any flouting the laws may be subject to penalties under local municipal bylaws, Metro Vancouver explained.
For more information, you can visit the regional authority's website.
Environment Canada is predicting temperatures to reach daily highs just above 20 C over the Thanksgiving Day long weekend across the Tri-Cities.
This includes mostly sunny skies with some haze and fog patches in the evening, along with a low of 10 C.
- with files from Stefan Labbé, Glacier Media
