In a Drought Year, the Blowout Is the Least Important Thing You Do This Fall

By Jon Peters, Founder and General Manager, Irrigation Managers. Nationally Certified Crop Adviser with 33 years in irrigation technology and agronomy.

As of September 30, 2026. Washington's statewide drought emergency, declared April 8, remains in effect through April 7, 2027. Most of Spokane County is in D3 Extreme Drought.

On April 8, 2026, the Washington Department of Ecology declared a drought emergency for every watershed in the state. The order runs through April 7, 2027.[^1] Read that date again. It means the declaration will still be in force when most Eastern Washington properties charge their mainlines next spring.

On September 10, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center put the odds of a very strong El Niño this fall and winter at greater than 90 percent.[^2] In Spokane, El Niño winters have averaged about 72 percent of normal snowfall.[^3]

And the blowout crews are already on the road.

Every grounds team in the region knows how to winterize. Compressor on, zone by zone, water out, done. It protects thousands of dollars of pipe, valves and heads, and it matters. But it is also the one fall task that nobody forgets.

The task that does get forgotten is capturing what the system did this season, before the controller goes dark and the crew's memory goes with it. In a normal year that's a missed opportunity. Going into a possible second dry year, it's the most valuable data you own.

Key Takeaways

Washington's drought emergency covers the whole state and does not expire until April 7, 2027, which is after most Eastern Washington irrigation startups.[^1]
As of September 22, 2026, 93.57 percent of Washington was in moderate drought or worse (D1-D4), and 25.23 percent was in extreme drought or worse (D3-D4).[^4] Most of Spokane County moved to D3 in August.[^5]
El Niño winters bring Spokane about 72 percent of its normal snowfall on average, though NWS Spokane notes that is "not a guarantee."[^3] NOAA gives a very strong El Niño better than 90 percent odds this winter.[^2]
The average installed sprinkler system runs at about 50 percent distribution uniformity,[^6] well below the 65 percent EPA sets as the commercial minimum.[^7] A blowout does nothing to fix that.
The runtime, flow and alarm history in your controller is the baseline for next year's plan and budget. Pull it before the system shuts down.

Why Isn't a Blowout Enough?

A blowout protects your hardware from freezing. It tells you nothing about whether your landscape got the water it needed this season, and that is the question next year's schedule and budget depend on.

Think about what a blowout actually measures: whether water is out of the pipe. That's a plumbing question. The agronomic question is different. Did each zone deliver what the plants in it needed, when they needed it, through the hottest and driest stretch Spokane has had in years?

The answer lives in three places: the controller's logs, the water meter, and the heads of the people who worked the site all summer. All three start disappearing the week the system shuts down.

What Data Should You Pull Before the Controller Goes Dark?

Pull this season's runtimes by zone, total water applied, flow readings, alarm and fault history, and every manual override, then save them somewhere that isn't the controller.

Log retention varies a lot by controller make, model and settings. Some keep a full season. Some keep weeks. A power-down, a firmware update or a winter reset can wipe what's there. Check yours now rather than in March.

Data	Where it lives	What it tells you
Runtime by zone, by month	Controller logs or central software	Whether schedules followed the season or sat still
Total water applied	Irrigation meter or utility bills	Your actual use, the "used" half of the gap
Flow readings by zone	Flow sensor, central software	Leaks, broken laterals, clogged nozzles
Alarms and faults	Controller event log	Which zones failed and how long before anyone acted
Manual overrides and hand watering	Controller log, crew notes	Where the program wasn't working, so someone worked around it
Plant loss and dry or soggy spots	Crew walk-through, photos	The landscape's own report card

That last row matters more than it looks. A zone that got hand-watered all August is a zone where the automatic schedule failed. Nobody writes that down, and by April nobody remembers which zones they were.

How Do You Compare What Your Landscape Used to What It Needed?

Put the water you actually applied next to what the plants needed based on evapotranspiration for your site. The difference is the gap, and it's the most useful number you can bring into next season.

Definition, evapotranspiration (ET): Evapotranspiration is the total water a landscape loses to evaporation from the soil and transpiration through plant leaves, measured in inches. It is the standard way to estimate how much water plants need over a given period.

Your meter tells you what went out. ET tells you what was needed. You can look up ET and rainfall for your site with the free ET and rainfall lookup tool on irrmgmt.com.

When the two numbers don't match, one of two things happened. Either you applied more than the plants needed, which is waste, or you applied less, which shows up as stress and plant loss. In a drought summer many properties see both on the same site: overwatering in shaded or low zones and stress on the south-facing slopes.

Why Does Uniformity Matter More Than Minutes?

Because a system that spreads water unevenly has to overwater most of a zone to get enough onto its driest spot, and no amount of schedule adjustment fixes that.

Definition, distribution uniformity (DU): Distribution uniformity is a measure of how evenly an irrigation system applies water across an area. The common measure, DU of the low quarter, compares the driest 25 percent of the area to the average.

The Irrigation Association analyzed more than 6,800 landscape audits and concluded that "the average DU_lq is about 50% no matter what type of sprinkler head is being used."[^6] EPA's WaterSense at Work guidance says an audit should confirm DU is "at least 65 percent" and recommends a full audit by a qualified auditor every three years.[^7]

That's not a crew problem. It's a property of how systems get installed, adjusted and worn over time. But it means minutes are the wrong lever. If the driest quarter of a zone is getting half the average, the only way the schedule can keep it green is to soak everything else.

If your system is still pressurized, this week is your last chance this year to measure it. A catch-can test needs running water. Once the system is blown out, you're waiting until spring.

Which Zones Told You Something This Summer?

The zones that looked worst, needed the most repairs, or got the most hand watering are telling you where the schedule and the site don't match.

Every zone is its own microclimate. Sun, shade, slope, soil, plant material and heat reflected off a building all change what a zone needs. A single program across 80 zones is wrong in 79 different ways at once.

Common patterns and what usually sits behind them:

Brown on slopes and high spots, green at the bottom. Runoff. Water is applied faster than the soil takes it in. Cycle-and-soak programming usually fixes this.
Dry arcs or rings around heads. Uniformity. Head spacing, pressure, or mismatched nozzles.
Soggy turf, moss or weeds in shade. The shaded zone is running a full-sun schedule.
One zone that "always" needs a repair. Pressure problems, root intrusion, or a lateral that was patched rather than fixed.

Write these down by zone number now. It is the cheapest planning data you will ever collect.

Are Your Trees Done for the Year Just Because the System Is?

Not after a summer like this one. WSU Extension guidance is to give trees a deep watering in late autumn, after deciduous leaves drop and before the ground freezes.[^8]

The same guidance notes that "insufficient water over the course of several years is the most common cause of tree decline."[^8] That is the risk on a campus or park that came through a D3 summer and then blew out its system in early October.

Your lawn heads were never going to do this job well anyway. Turf zones don't put water deep into tree root zones. Plan for it with hose or tank watering on your highest-value trees and evergreens, and put it on the calendar now.

What Does Next Spring Look Like From Here?

Eastern Washington properties could start 2027 still under a drought emergency, possibly after a low-snow winter, which makes the plan you build this winter more important than usual.

Date	Event
April 8, 2026	Ecology declares statewide drought emergency[^1]
August 2026	Most of Spokane County moves to D3 Extreme Drought[^5]
September 10, 2026	NOAA: greater than 90% chance of a very strong El Niño this winter[^2]
September 22, 2026	93.57% of Washington in D1-D4; 25.23% in D3-D4[^4]
October to November 2026	Blowouts. Last chance to capture season data and test uniformity
Late fall 2026	Deep watering for trees before ground freeze[^8]
Winter 2026-27	El Niño winter; Spokane averages about 72% of normal snow in El Niño years[^3]
April 7, 2027	Drought emergency order set to expire, around spring startup[^1]

None of this guarantees a dry 2027. NWS Spokane is clear that a low-snow El Niño winter is more likely, not certain.[^3] But the properties that come through a second dry year in good shape won't be the ones that guessed right about the weather. They'll be the ones that knew their numbers before the season started.

Before the controller goes dark: know your number

You already have most of what you need for a strong 2027 plan. It's sitting in your controller logs, your meter readings and your crew's notes. What you need is a water use analysis baseline: measured water need, peak demand and seasonal adjustment for every zone, built before spring startup instead of during a July emergency.

Request a water use analysis for your Eastern Washington site →

What Does a Correctly Managed Off-Season Look Like?

It turns this season's data into next season's schedule, repair list and budget, so spring startup begins with a plan instead of last year's program.

Export the season before you shut down. Runtimes, water applied, flow and alarms, saved outside the controller.
Measure uniformity while you still have pressure. If you've already blown out, schedule the audit for spring startup, before the schedule is set.
Walk the site with the crew and log problem zones by number. Photos help. Memory doesn't last until April.
Compare applied water to ET, zone by zone. That's the gap, and it tells you where the savings and the plant health problems are.
Repair before you re-water. Fix the lateral, the head, the pressure problem on the winter list. A schedule can't compensate for a broken system.
Plan infrastructure over the winter. Controller, flow sensing, weather-based adjustment and remote access upgrades are easier to order and install while the system is off.
Build the spring schedule from plant need, not from last year's program. Cycle and soak on slopes. Different programs for sun and shade.
Set up monthly reporting against the baseline. What isn't measured is an opinion at the next board or council meeting.

Who Is Most Exposed Right Now?

Parks departments, school and university grounds, HOAs, and commercial or institutional campuses with large turf areas and many zones have the most to lose from a second dry year.

Exposure scales with zone count. A 10-zone site can be managed by feel. An 80-zone park system with sports fields, slopes, shade and mature trees cannot, and it's where the gap between what's applied and what's needed tends to be largest.

If your property has 50 or more zones and a remote-capable controller, this winter is a genuine decision point.

What Should Grounds Managers Do in the Next 30 Days?

☐ Export controller logs for the full 2026 season before blowout or power-down.
☐ Pull meter reads or utility bills for the irrigation season.
☐ Run a catch-can test on your worst zones if the system is still pressurized.
☐ Walk the site with the crew and log problem zones by number, with photos.
☐ Schedule late-fall deep watering for high-value trees and evergreens.
☐ Look up this season's ET for your site and compare it to what you applied.
☐ Get it into the budget conversation. Municipal parks: July to June fiscal years, with capital projects decided in Q1. HOAs and commercial properties: January to December budgets, drafted now in Q4. K-12 and higher education: July to June, with proposals generally due by March.

[FOUNDER PARAGRAPH: REQUIRED BEFORE PUBLISH. One or two paragraphs in Jon's words, from his own experience. Do not invent. Suggested prompts for a 15-minute call:

What does he see in controller logs at the end of a drought summer that grounds managers usually miss?
A site he has walked in Eastern Washington or North Idaho where fall data changed the next year's plan (anonymized is fine).
His view as a CCA on what a D3 summer followed by a low-snow winter does to turf and trees going into spring.]

How Irrigation Managers Handles the Off-Season

Irrigation Managers is a remote irrigation management firm built on agronomy, not plumbing, led by a nationally Certified Crop Adviser with 33 years in irrigation technology and agronomic principles. We work directly with property owners and as a white-label partner to landscape maintenance contractors across Eastern Washington and the Pacific Northwest.

Our framework is Analyze → Implement → Manage:

Analyze: a water use analysis establishing baseline need, peak demand and seasonal adjustment for every site, built from your own season data.
Implement: system configuration, controller programming and base scheduling built from measured uniformity, plant demand and your site's conditions.
Manage: 24/7 proactive monitoring, fault and alert routing, ongoing optimization, and branded report cards comparing performance to your baseline.

In Liberty Lake, two city parks managed with this approach are on track to use 25 to 30 percent less water in 2026, in a drought year. The goal was never just the water. It was consistent, healthy turf across every zone, with the savings as a bonus.

Guided programs start as low as $1 per zone per month. Full irrigation management, including monitoring and reporting, starts as low as $5 per zone per month.

The drought order runs to April 7, 2027. The controller data from this season lasts only as long as someone saves it.

Request a Water Use Analysis →

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do after my irrigation blowout in Spokane? After the blowout, save the season's controller data (runtimes by zone, alarms, overrides), pull your irrigation meter reads or utility bills, log problem zones with your crew, and deep water high-value trees in late fall before the ground freezes. Then compare water applied to evapotranspiration for your site to find the gap between what your landscape used and what it needed. That comparison is the starting point for next season's schedule and budget.

Is Eastern Washington still in a drought emergency? Yes, as of September 30, 2026. The Washington Department of Ecology declared a statewide drought emergency on April 8, 2026, covering every watershed, and the order runs through April 7, 2027. As of September 22, 2026, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed 93.57 percent of the state in moderate drought or worse, and most of Spokane County was moved to D3 Extreme Drought in August.

Will El Niño make 2027 a drought year in Spokane? Not necessarily, but it raises the risk. NOAA gave a very strong El Niño better than 90 percent odds for fall and winter 2026-27 as of September 10. According to NWS Spokane, El Niño winters have averaged about 72 percent of normal snowfall in Spokane, but the agency says below-normal snow is more likely, "not a guarantee." Properties should plan for a dry spring without assuming one.

Why did some of my zones decline even though we watered every day we could? Usually because of uniformity, not schedule. The Irrigation Association's analysis of more than 6,800 audits found average distribution uniformity of about 50 percent regardless of head type. At that level, the driest part of a zone gets far less water than the average, so more runtime overwaters most of the zone while the dry spots stay dry. Slopes with runoff and shaded zones on full-sun schedules add to it. The fix is measuring uniformity and programming by zone, not adding minutes.

Can I still do an irrigation audit after the system is blown out? A catch-can uniformity test needs a pressurized system, so once you've blown out, that part waits until spring startup. You can still do the rest now: export controller data, compare applied water to ET, review alarms and repairs, and walk the site. Scheduling the uniformity test for spring startup, before you set the season's program, is the right order.

What size property benefits from a water use analysis? Sites with 50 or more zones and a remote-capable controller, such as parks, school and university grounds, HOAs and commercial campuses, get the most from it, because that's where zone-to-zone differences add up. Irrigation Managers' guided programs start as low as $1 per zone per month, and full irrigation management starts as low as $5 per zone per month.

References

[^1]: Washington State Department of Ecology, Drought 2026 Order and Determination, signed April 8, 2026. https://ecology.wa.gov/getattachment/40b0a4a1-efc8-4326-9d51-bbfc4cab6e54/Drought-2026-Order-and-Determination.pdf

[^2]: NOAA Climate Prediction Center, ENSO Diagnostic Discussion, issued September 10, 2026. https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml

[^3]: National Weather Service Spokane, El Niño and the Inland Northwest, February 20, 2025. https://www.weather.gov/otx/elnino

[^4]: David Mocko (NASA/GSFC/SSAI), U.S. Drought Monitor: Washington, valid September 22, 2026 (cumulative categories). https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Data/pdf/current/current_WA_cat.pdf

[^5]: Jacob Genuise, September 2026 Drought and Streamflow Update, Office of the Washington State Climatologist, September 10, 2026. https://climate.uw.edu/2026/09/10/september-2026-drought-and-streamflow-update/

[^6]: Brent Mecham, Using Distribution Uniformity to Evaluate the Quality of a Sprinkler System, Irrigation Association, 2004. https://www.irrigation.org/IA/FileUploads/IA/Resources/TechnicalPapers/2004/UsingDistributionUniformityToEvaluateTheQualityOfASprinklerSystem.pdf

[^7]: U.S. EPA WaterSense, WaterSense at Work, Section 5.3: Irrigation, 2023. https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-05/ws-commercial-watersense-at-work_Section_5.3_Irrigation.pdf

[^8]: Mary Davis, WSU Ferry County Extension Master Gardener, Trees in Fall, Washington State University Extension (undated). https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/extension/uploads/sites/74/2018/12/Trees-in-Fall-from-WSU-Extension-Master-Gardeners-1.pdf