Drought in Gates County, NC: 1.5 years in 10 since 2000

1.5 years in 10

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

1. 0
2. 9
3. 41
4. 0
5. 0
6. 1
7. 3
8. 25
9. 35
10. 2
11. 9
12. 15
13. 5
14. 0
15. 0
16. 0
17. 0
18. 0
19. 0
20. 0
21. 0
22. 9
23. 6
24. 2
25. 7
26. 11

20002025

Drought years: 2002 (41 wk), 2007 (25 wk), 2008 (35 wk) and 2011 (15 wk). Not a single drought week in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

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 NC

100th most drought-prone of 100 NC counties; the NC middle is 3.1 in 10. Closest on the list: Hertford County (1.5 in 10). Driest in NC: Cleveland County (5 in 10).

When in the year it hits

Most often in Nov (18% of weeks), then Jan (18%) and Oct (18%). Least in Mar (11%). May to September averages 15%.

1. 18 Jan
2. 15 Feb
3. 11 Mar
4. 16 Apr
5. 12 May
6. 12 Jun
7. 17 Jul
8. 17 Aug
9. 16 Sep
10. 18 Oct
11. 18 Nov
12. 14 Dec

The worst year: 2002

2002: 41 weeks in drought, peaking at D3 extreme. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 15.1% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 5.4% at D2, 0.1% at D3, never any D4. Longest unbroken spell: 50 weeks, Oct 30, 2001 to Oct 8, 2002.

Lately

Last drought year: 2011, 15 weeks. 2016-2025: 0 in 10, against 2.5 in 10 for 2000-2015, wetter lately. So far in 2026: 31 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

Gates County lands on the plan covered in keeping a regular lawn. Its last ten years ran wetter than the ten before; what that does and does not mean. How each of Gates County's 1,401 weeks was judged: how drought is counted.