Tampa Bay Water Restrictions Locked In Through March 2027 as Reservoir Sits Half Empty

Tampa's lawn watering rules just got locked in for six more months. The Southwest Florida Water Management District's governing board voted Sept. 22 to extend the Modified Phase III "Extreme" Water Shortage order through March 31, 2027, keeping Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa under mandatory one-day-per-week watering with strict overnight hours. It's the second time the district has extended this same order.

Nothing changes about the schedule itself. Residents still water on one assigned day, only between midnight and 4 a.m. or between 8 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. Properties smaller than an acre get to pick one of those two windows. Properties an acre or larger have to use both. The rule applies to everyone, including people on private wells, not just customers on city or county water.

Why the district isn't loosening up

The region is dry, and it has stayed dry for two summers in a row. The district says rainfall has come in below average during both the 2025 and 2026 wet seasons, leaving a 12-month rainfall deficit of 15.4 inches through August. Rivers, lakes and the public water supply haven't recovered.

The clearest sign of the strain sits behind the scenes at Tampa Bay Water's C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, the region's main backup storage tank for treated surface water. As of Sept. 20, it held 7.87 billion gallons, roughly half of what it can hold when full.

Find your day

Both the City of Tampa and unincorporated Hillsborough County use the same address-based system. It comes down to the last digit of your house number:

Address ends in	Watering day
0 or 1	Monday
2 or 3	Tuesday
4 or 5	Wednesday
6 or 7	Thursday
8 or 9	Friday
Mixed or no address (shopping centers, common areas)	Friday

Residents of Plant City and Temple Terrace follow their own city's posted schedule instead. Hand watering of flowers, shrubs and trees (not turf) is allowed any day but only outside the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. window. HOAs are barred from penalizing homeowners for brown-looking lawns tied to compliance with the one-day rule, and they can't force anyone to water more to meet a landscaping standard while the order is in effect.

Enforcement is real, and it's climbing

Tampa's Water Department has said citations for violating watering rules are running about 30% higher this year than last, with more than 430 customers cited since the shortage order took effect Dec. 1. A first violation carries a fine starting at $100 in both the city and unincorporated Hillsborough County. Many of the citations have gone to high-use households, ones exceeding 10,000 gallons a month, which put them among the city's biggest residential water users.

The city also says households that finish a free irrigation evaluation are saving an average of 5,000 gallons a month afterward, and it's waiving reclaimed water hookup fees for eligible customers through the end of the year.

The district's board reviews shortage orders periodically and can shorten, lengthen or ease them if rainfall and reservoir levels recover. For now, nothing is scheduled to change before spring. Residents who aren't sure which rules apply to their address, since Tampa, Temple Terrace, Plant City and unincorporated Hillsborough County each post their own schedule, can check the City of Tampa's watering days and hours page or Hillsborough County's watering lookup tool before setting a sprinkler timer.

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Header photo: Photo: Chris wade NTEZICIMPA (Pexels)