Drought in Baraga County, MI: 1.5 years in 10 since 2000

1.5 years in 10

Baraga County, MI: 4 of 26 full years had 13+ weeks in drought. Less drought-prone than most US counties.

1. 8
2. 0
3. 0
4. 6
5. 0
6. 10
7. 17
8. 36
9. 12
10. 24
11. 24
12. 10
13. 1
14. 0
15. 0
16. 7
17. 0
18. 0
19. 0
20. 0
21. 0
22. 3
23. 0
24. 0
25. 4
26. 0

20002025

Drought years: 2006 (17 wk), 2007 (36 wk), 2009 (24 wk) and 2010 (24 wk). Not a single drought week in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2025.

A regular lawn is fine here; plan for the odd dry year

Real droughts are rare here. A smart controller that skips watering after rain covers the odd dry year.

You can keep a regular lawn. Worth doing: a rain-sensing or smart controller, and deeper, less frequent watering if Nov turns dry.

Against the rest of MI

31st most drought-prone of 83 MI counties; the MI middle is 1.5 in 10. Closest on the list: Oakland County (1.9 in 10) and Midland County (1.5 in 10). Driest in MI: Gogebic County (3.5 in 10). Least drought: Newaygo County (0.8 in 10).

When in the year it hits

Most often in Nov (18% of weeks), then Aug (17%) and Oct (16%). Least in Feb (7%). May to September averages 12%.

1. 11 Jan
2. 7 Feb
3. 10 Mar
4. 10 Apr
5. 9 May
6. 8 Jun
7. 13 Jul
8. 17 Aug
9. 14 Sep
10. 16 Oct
11. 18 Nov
12. 10 Dec

The worst year: 2007

2007: 36 weeks in drought, peaking at D3 extreme. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 11.9% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 2.9% at D2, 0.7% at D3, never any D4. Longest unbroken spell: 28 weeks, Oct 14, 2008 to Apr 21, 2009.

Lately

Last drought year: 2010, 24 weeks. 2016-2025: 0 in 10, against 2.5 in 10 for 2000-2015, wetter lately. So far in 2026: 5 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

Baraga County lands on the plan covered in keeping a regular lawn. Its last ten years ran wetter than the ten before; what that does and does not mean. How each of Baraga County's 1,401 weeks was judged: how drought is counted.