The water itself gets harder
As aquifer and reservoir levels fall, the dissolved mineral content of what remains rises. Less water carrying the same minerals means a higher concentration.
On water already testing 15-30 grains per gallon, that is a meaningful shift rather than a technicality. Scale forms faster in water heaters, on fixtures, and inside tankless heat exchangers.
The practical consequences: a softener sized for normal conditions may start regenerating more often, and its capacity between regenerations effectively drops. If you are refilling salt noticeably more often during a dry spell, that is why.
It is also a reason to bring a water heater flush forward rather than let it slide, and to shorten the interval on a tankless descale if the drought is prolonged.
On a well, drawdown can change the chemistry more sharply still — more sediment, and sometimes more iron, as the pump draws from lower in the column. If filters are clogging faster than they used to, that is worth testing rather than just replacing.
Seals and traps dry out
Two separate problems, both caused by things not being used.
P-traps evaporate. The U-bend under every fixture holds water that seals the sewer from the room. In a hot, dry summer — especially with air conditioning running, which dries indoor air further — a trap in an unused bathroom or a floor drain can evaporate dry in weeks. Then sewer gas comes up through it.
That is the single most common cause of a mystery smell during a dry summer, and the fix is thirty seconds of running water. Do it monthly in guest bathrooms, utility sinks and floor drains.
Rubber components dry and harden. Toilet flappers, faucet washers, supply line gaskets. Heat accelerates it, and a hardened flapper is what starts a toilet running silently — which is a particularly unfortunate way to waste water during a drought.
Test every toilet with food colouring in the tank: a few drops, no flushing, check the bowl fifteen minutes later.
Worth knowing
During restrictions, people often stop using certain fixtures entirely to save water. That is exactly what dries the traps out. Running a tap for thirty seconds once a month uses a trivial amount of water and prevents the problem.
The ground shrinks
This is the effect with the longest tail. Expansive clay shrinks as it dries, and a prolonged drought shrinks it a lot.
Buried pipe has to accommodate that movement. Over a long dry spell it pulls sewer joints apart, drops sags into laterals, and stresses supply lines running through or under a slab.
The failures usually appear later — often when rain finally returns and the clay swells back, moving everything again in the opposite direction. That is why sewer problems cluster after a drought breaks rather than during it.
It is also why foundation watering becomes a topic during long droughts. If you do water a foundation, the aim is even moisture all the way round rather than soaking one side — uneven wetting produces differential movement, which is worse than uniform dryness.
Check your restriction stage before running soaker hoses; most systems have provisions for foundation watering, but the permitted times differ from lawn irrigation.
Leaks get harder to find
This one is counterintuitive and it costs people real money.
The classic outdoor leak sign is a patch of lawn greener or softer than everything around it. In a drought, with the lawn brown and irrigation restricted, that signal disappears entirely — a leak can run for months with nothing to see.
Indoors, the confusion runs the other way. Bills rise for everyone during a drought because of surcharges and heavier irrigation, so a genuine leak hides inside an expected increase.
The answer is the meter test, which does not care how dry it is. Turn off everything that uses water, check whether the meter's flow indicator moves, then compare readings an hour apart. Ten minutes, twice during the season — method in finding a hidden leak.
During restrictions this matters more than usual, because an undetected leak may put you over a threshold you are being penalised against.
The short list for a dry summer
Run water in unused fixtures monthly — thirty seconds each, traps refilled.
Run the meter test, since the visual leak signs are gone.
Test every toilet with food colouring; heat hardens flappers.
Check the softener's salt use and settings against harder incoming water.
Bring the water heater flush forward rather than deferring it, as scale forms faster.
Water the foundation evenly if you do it at all, within your restriction stage.
Walk the irrigation system while it runs, once. Broken and misaligned heads waste enormous volumes, and during restrictions that is both costly and pointless.