Drought in Forrest County, MS: 1.9 years in 10 since 2000

1.9 years in 10

Forrest County, MS: 5 of 26 full years had 13+ weeks in drought. Less drought-prone than most US counties.

1. 48
2. 5
3. 6
4. 0
5. 0
6. 0
7. 20
8. 19
9. 2
10. 8
11. 12
12. 32
13. 3
14. 0
15. 3
16. 7
17. 8
18. 0
19. 0
20. 0
21. 0
22. 0
23. 6
24. 19
25. 5
26. 7

20002025

Drought years: 2000 (48 wk), 2006 (20 wk), 2007 (19 wk), 2011 (32 wk) and 2023 (19 wk). Not a single drought week in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2013, 2017, 2018, 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 Nov turns dry.

Against the rest of MS

75th most drought-prone of 82 MS counties; the MS middle is 2.7 in 10. Closest on the list: Stone County (1.9 in 10) and Alcorn County (1.9 in 10). Driest in MS: Tallahatchie County (4.2 in 10). Least drought: Benton County (1.5 in 10).

When in the year it hits

Most often in Nov (24% of weeks), then Dec (23%) and Oct (22%). Least in Feb (10%). May to September averages 16%.

1. 13 Jan
2. 10 Feb
3. 12 Mar
4. 13 Apr
5. 17 May
6. 14 Jun
7. 15 Jul
8. 19 Aug
9. 15 Sep
10. 22 Oct
11. 24 Nov
12. 23 Dec

The worst year: 2000

2000: 48 weeks in drought, peaking at D4 exceptional. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 16.3% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 7.8% at D2, 2.8% at D3, 18 weeks with some of the county in D4. Longest unbroken spell: 51 weeks, Feb 1, 2000 to Jan 16, 2001.

Lately

Last drought year: 2023, 19 weeks. 2016-2025: 1 in 10, against 2.5 in 10 for 2000-2015, about the same. So far in 2026: 18 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

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