Drought in Bourbon County, KY: 1.2 years in 10 since 2000

1.2 years in 10

Bourbon County, KY: 3 of 26 full years had 13+ weeks in drought. Less drought-prone than most US counties.

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

20002025

Drought years: 2005 (17 wk), 2007 (21 wk) and 2008 (15 wk). Not a single drought week in 2003, 2004, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021.

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 KY

85th most drought-prone of 120 KY counties; the KY middle is 1.2 in 10. Closest on the list: Daviess County (1.2 in 10) and Henderson County (1.2 in 10). Driest in KY: Calloway County (2.3 in 10). Least drought: Grant County (0.4 in 10).

When in the year it hits

Most often in Nov (22% of weeks), then Oct (15%) and Dec (12%). Least in Mar (1%). May to September averages 9%.

1. 8 Jan
2. 6 Feb
3. 1 Mar
4. 3 Apr
5. 8 May
6. 8 Jun
7. 8 Jul
8. 9 Aug
9. 11 Sep
10. 15 Oct
11. 22 Nov
12. 12 Dec

The worst year: 2007

2007: 21 weeks in drought, peaking at D3 extreme. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 9.1% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 3.1% at D2, 0.7% at D3, never any D4. Longest unbroken spell: 21 weeks, Jun 5, 2007 to Oct 23, 2007.

Lately

Last drought year: 2008, 15 weeks. 2016-2025: 0 in 10, against 1.9 in 10 for 2000-2015, about the same. So far in 2026: 7 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

Bourbon County lands on the plan covered in keeping a regular lawn. Its worst year, 2007, was one of the worst nationally too; see the worst years since 2000. How each of Bourbon County's 1,401 weeks was judged: how drought is counted.