Even before this "drought" we weren't getting as much water from our catchments! Where does it go?

Water flows over the ground either from rain or from a stream into your catchment. When the water is in the catchment and not flowing it is susceptible to the other two types of movement: evapotranspiration and ground water discharge. Depending on how high the water table in your area is some water will leech from your catchment into the ground and travel underground to and area of lower water potential. Evapotranspiration is the water that evaporates into the air and the water that is absorbed by plants. Evapotraspiration occurs all year long but it occurs at a higher rate the hotter it is outside especially in low humidity areas.