Drought in Marquette County, MI: 1.5 years in 10 since 2000

1.5 years in 10

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

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

20002025

Drought years: 2006 (17 wk), 2007 (31 wk), 2009 (13 wk) and 2010 (17 wk). Not a single drought week in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 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 Jul turns dry.

Against the rest of MI

34th most drought-prone of 83 MI counties; the MI middle is 1.5 in 10. Closest on the list: Bay County (1.5 in 10) and Mason County (1.5 in 10). Driest in MI: Gogebic County (3.5 in 10). Least drought: Newaygo County (0.8 in 10).

When in the year it hits

Most often in Jul (16% of weeks), then Nov (14%) and Oct (14%). Least in Mar (3%). May to September averages 13%.

1. 7 Jan
2. 4 Feb
3. 3 Mar
4. 10 Apr
5. 12 May
6. 11 Jun
7. 16 Jul
8. 12 Aug
9. 13 Sep
10. 14 Oct
11. 14 Nov
12. 9 Dec

The worst year: 2007

2007: 31 weeks in drought, peaking at D3 extreme. Across 1,401 weekly maps: 10.3% of all weeks at D1 or worse, 3% at D2, 0.6% at D3, never any D4. Longest unbroken spell: 22 weeks, May 15, 2007 to Oct 9, 2007.

Lately

Last drought year: 2010, 17 weeks. 2016-2025: 0 in 10, against 2.5 in 10 for 2000-2015, wetter lately. So far in 2026: 6 of 44 weeks in drought, through Nov 3, 2026.

Further reading

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