Drought in Essex County, NJ: 1.5 years in 10 since 2000

1.5 years in 10

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

1. 0
2. 11
3. 36
4. 0
5. 0
6. 4
7. 0
8. 0
9. 0
10. 0
11. 10
12. 0
13. 6
14. 8
15. 0
16. 19
17. 30
18. 11
19. 0
20. 0
21. 0
22. 0
23. 10
24. 0
25. 10
26. 17

20002025

Drought years: 2002 (36 wk), 2015 (19 wk), 2016 (30 wk) and 2025 (17 wk). Not a single drought week in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.

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 Sep turns dry.

Against the rest of NJ

4th most drought-prone of 21 NJ counties; the NJ middle is 1.2 in 10. Closest on the list: Hudson County (1.5 in 10) and Union County (1.5 in 10). Driest in NJ: Passaic County (1.9 in 10). Least drought: Monmouth County (0.4 in 10).

When in the year it hits

Most often in Sep (21% of weeks), then Dec (20%) and Nov (18%). Least in Jun (8%). May to September averages 13%.

1. 16 Jan
2. 15 Feb
3. 10 Mar
4. 10 Apr
5. 12 May
6. 8 Jun
7. 11 Jul
8. 13 Aug
9. 21 Sep
10. 16 Oct
11. 18 Nov
12. 20 Dec

The worst year: 2002

2002: 36 weeks in drought, peaking at D3 extreme. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 14% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 3.3% at D2, 0.8% at D3, never any D4. Longest unbroken spell: 40 weeks, Jun 14, 2016 to Mar 14, 2017.

Lately

Last drought year: 2025, 17 weeks. 2016-2025: 2 in 10, against 1.3 in 10 for 2000-2015, about the same. So far in 2026: 24 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

Essex County lands on the plan covered in keeping a regular lawn. Its worst year, 2002, was not one of the big national drought years; see the worst years since 2000. How each of Essex County's 1,401 weeks was judged: how drought is counted.