Drought in Letcher County, KY: 1.9 years in 10 since 2000

1.9 years in 10

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

1. 21
2. 17
3. 8
4. 0
5. 0
6. 15
7. 4
8. 39
9. 30
10. 1
11. 0
12. 0
13. 0
14. 0
15. 0
16. 2
17. 10
18. 0
19. 0
20. 8
21. 0
22. 0
23. 2
24. 8
25. 3
26. 0

20002025

Drought years: 2000 (21 wk), 2001 (17 wk), 2005 (15 wk), 2007 (39 wk) and 2008 (30 wk). Not a single drought week in 2003, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2025.

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

9th most drought-prone of 120 KY counties; the KY middle is 1.2 in 10. Closest on the list: Bell County (1.9 in 10) and Marshall County (1.9 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 (29% of weeks), then Dec (21%) and Oct (20%). Least in Apr (5%). May to September averages 10%.

1. 14 Jan
2. 10 Feb
3. 10 Mar
4. 5 Apr
5. 9 May
6. 11 Jun
7. 8 Jul
8. 8 Aug
9. 15 Sep
10. 20 Oct
11. 29 Nov
12. 21 Dec

The worst year: 2007

2007: 39 weeks in drought, peaking at D4 exceptional. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 13.3% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 5.1% at D2, 1.8% at D3, 15 weeks with some of the county in D4. Longest unbroken spell: 42 weeks, May 22, 2007 to Mar 4, 2008.

Lately

Last drought year: 2008, 30 weeks. 2016-2025: 0 in 10, against 3.1 in 10 for 2000-2015, wetter lately. So far in 2026: 18 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

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