Is it possible that water conservation is contributing to the water shortage?

Question

Now that I have your attention, I realize that this probably sounds idiotic, but I was considering the fact that many people water their lawns at night. This was to decrease the amount of water evaporated by the sun, which is working I'm sure, but also decreasing the amount of water evaporated, condensed, and then precipitated. Just a curious thought that ran through my mind. No mean comments please, it was just something that I thought of.

Answer 1

Increasing evaporation from fresh water may have the effect of causing a local condensation event which can bring ocean air ashore to give us rain of consequence.  But if we cause condensation that is not sufficient to bring more rain on shore, the evaporative loss will exceed the rain it produces.

This is demonstrated by the very large evaporation over the Great Lakes basin, significant enough to pull rain from Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, and Pacific. Your one lawn is not going to do much, usually.

There was a situation in Palestine late in the 19th century, in which a gardener put in a dam to irrigate gardens on Mount Carmel.  What are called latter rains that had not come to that area for centuries began the next season and have continued.

This of course was a situation in which the conditions for the latter rains were very nearly met. Adding that extra water tipped a balance. It was not enough to do it without pre-existing conditions.  

It is just possible that large numbers of people watering their lawns at the right time might create evaporation-condensation conditions that would pull in winds from the ocean if conditions are close.

Answer 2

good point

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Answer 3

that is quite an interesting idea but when it rains that rain water was originally evaporate off of gigantic bodies of water which yield much more wator vapor than that of the sprinklers. And it can only rain is much water as is evaporated, in other words lets say, theoretically of course if 100 gallons of water evaporated from a sprinkler system and was condensed and turned it to rainfall it cant create more than a 100 gallons saying there was only a 100 gallons to begin with, so it would be a wash.  In addition, its not a 100 percent return rate when it comes to evaporate water and rainfall.  

Answer 4

No because when water goes through the hydrologic cycle there's no guarantee it will come back to earth at potable water (most water on earth isn't).  So you'd be wasting a known source of potable water for a slim chance that it might come back in some other place at some other time.  

But night watering can be wasteful because people don't see that their sprinklers need adjusting.

When water is absorbed into the ground it enters the water table and is a usable source of water. Much of our useful water comes from ground sources. Some does go into underground rivers that outlet at the sea, some does get used by plants.