Drought in Dent County, MO: 1.5 years in 10 since 2000

1.5 years in 10

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

1. 15
2. 5
3. 0
4. 1
5. 0
6. 12
7. 4
8. 1
9. 0
10. 0
11. 0
12. 0
13. 31
14. 7
15. 0
16. 0
17. 0
18. 19
19. 9
20. 0
21. 0
22. 0
23. 8
24. 27
25. 12
26. 2

20002025

Drought years: 2000 (15 wk), 2012 (31 wk), 2017 (19 wk) and 2023 (27 wk). Not a single drought week in 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 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 Oct turns dry.

Against the rest of MO

111th most drought-prone of 115 MO counties; the MO middle is 3.1 in 10. Closest on the list: Bollinger County (1.5 in 10) and Texas County (1.5 in 10). Driest in MO: Jasper County (4.6 in 10). Least drought: Perry County (1.2 in 10).

When in the year it hits

Most often in Oct (19% of weeks), then Aug (18%) and Jan (16%). Least in Apr (3%). May to September averages 12%.

1. 16 Jan
2. 15 Feb
3. 7 Mar
4. 3 Apr
5. 9 May
6. 11 Jun
7. 15 Jul
8. 18 Aug
9. 9 Sep
10. 19 Oct
11. 12 Nov
12. 11 Dec

The worst year: 2012

2012: 31 weeks in drought, peaking at D3 extreme. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 12% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 4.3% at D2, 0.5% at D3, never any D4. Longest unbroken spell: 39 weeks, Jun 27, 2023 to Mar 19, 2024.

Lately

Last drought year: 2023, 27 weeks. 2016-2025: 2 in 10, against 1.3 in 10 for 2000-2015, about the same. So far in 2026: 15 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

Dent County lands on the plan covered in keeping a regular lawn. Its worst year, 2012, was one of the worst nationally too; see the worst years since 2000. How each of Dent County's 1,401 weeks was judged: how drought is counted.