US Counties With the Highest Weeks with Half the Area in Drought

3,144 US counties ranked by weeks with half the area in drought, from highest to lowest. First are Calhoun County, IA (52), Carroll County, IA (52) and Crawford County, IA (52). The middle one of the 3,144 has 12.

What this measures

The number of weeks in the year when at least half of the area was in moderate drought or worse on the weekly Drought Monitor map. Most years have 52 weekly maps and some have 53. Experts draw the maps from rain, soil, stream and crop data. Source: US Drought Monitor.

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 weeks with half the area in drought

• US Counties With the Lowest Weeks with Half the Area in Drought
• Weeks with half the area in drought 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.