US Counties With the Highest Longest Dry Spell

3,108 US counties ranked by longest dry spell, from highest to lowest. First are San Joaquin County, CA (206), Kings County, CA (198) and San Luis Obispo County, CA (197). The middle one of the 3,108 has 29.

What this measures

The most days in a row in the year without a wet day, meaning a day with a tenth of an inch of rain or more. It counts only inside the calendar year, so a dry spell that runs past New Year's Day is split in two. The rain is the county average of NOAA's daily map of weather station readings, made of squares about 3 miles wide. A state's figure is the average of its counties, each weighted by its land area. Lower 48 states only, from 1951. Source: NOAA NCEI nClimGrid-Daily.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

The 100 highest counties

Every state, highest first

Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.

More on longest dry spell

• US Counties With the Lowest Longest Dry Spell
• Longest dry spell by US county: map by year and what it goes with

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.