Drought in Boyd County, KY: 1.5 years in 10 since 2000

1.5 years in 10

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

1. 7
2. 4
3. 6
4. 0
5. 0
6. 16
7. 3
8. 28
9. 15
10. 2
11. 0
12. 0
13. 0
14. 0
15. 0
16. 0
17. 3
18. 0
19. 0
20. 1
21. 0
22. 0
23. 2
24. 9
25. 14
26. 4

20002025

Drought years: 2005 (16 wk), 2007 (28 wk), 2008 (15 wk) and 2024 (14 wk). Not a single drought week in 2003, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 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

50th most drought-prone of 120 KY counties; the KY middle is 1.2 in 10. Closest on the list: Greenup County (1.5 in 10) and Clinton 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 (18% of weeks), then Sep (16%) and Oct (14%). Least in Mar (1%). May to September averages 8%.

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

The worst year: 2007

2007: 28 weeks in drought, peaking at D3 extreme. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 8.5% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 3.5% at D2, 0.4% at D3, never any D4. Longest unbroken spell: 28 weeks, May 29, 2007 to Dec 4, 2007.

Lately

Last drought year: 2024, 14 weeks. 2016-2025: 1 in 10, against 1.9 in 10 for 2000-2015, about the same. So far in 2026: 5 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

Boyd 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 Boyd County's 1,401 weeks was judged: how drought is counted.