2026 Drought
The 2026 drought is an ongoing drought in Scott County and most of the Southeast that began in early 2026. As of April 2026, Scott County was classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor as being in a moderate to severe drought.
Background
After a relatively wet fall season in 2025, the northern Cumberland Plateau region began to experience a rainfall deficit in November 2025.
November 2025’s rainfall total in Scott County was 2.56 inches, a deficit of approximately 33%.
December 2025’s rainfall total in Scott County was 2.55 inches, a deficit of 58%. Normal December rainfall is 6.03 inches.
Despite the dry start to winter, total rainfall for the 2025 calendar year was normal in Scott County. The county received 57.78 inches of rain in 2025. The average annual rainfall is 57.93 inches.
The rainfall deficit continued through the first four months of 2026. In January 2026, total rainfall in Scott County was 3.57 inches, a deficit of 31%.
In February 2026, total rainfall in Scott County was 3.79 inches, a deficit of 25%.
In March 2026, total rainfall in Scott County was 2.53 inches, a deficit of 54%.
As of April 25, 2026, total rainfall for the month in Scott County was 1.69 inches, a deficit of 61%.
Historical Significance
Through April 23, 2026, Scott County was experiencing its driest start to a year since 2007. At that time, 11.58 inches of rain had been received since January 1, well below the average of 19.91 inches, for a deficit of 42%.
In 2007, 11.5 inches of rain had been received from January 1 through April 23.
The driest start to a year on record in Scott County was 1985, when 9.97 inches of rain had been received through April 23.
In 1985, the drought ended with flooding rains in late July and again in late September. The period of July through September 1985 was extremely wet, with 20.3 inches of rain received across the three-month period. That stood as a record in Scott County until 2010, when 21.63 inches of rain fell across the same three-month period.
In 2007, the drought persisted throughout the summer and fall. The year may have ended as the driest on record in Scott County; however, daily rainfall totals were missing for much of the months of November and December. As a result, 1968 still stands as the driest year on record in Scott County, with 41.59 inches of rain. (36.45 inches of rain were recorded in 2007.)
As a consequence of the drought, 2007 was also one of the hottest summers on record in Scott County. August 2007 was the second-hottest month of August on record locally, trailing only 1980, which experienced a massive heat wave.
Impacts
The Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area implemented a temporary ban on backcountry fires in April 2026. The ban came after the Alum Fire along the boundary between the Big South Fork NRRA and Daniel Boone National Forest in McCreary County, Ky., scorched more than 1,100 acres, threatening the Big South Fork’s Alum Ford Campground and Yahoo Falls Trailhead.
The drought is expected to severely impact the first cutting of hay for area farmers. In other parts of Tennessee, corn and other crops are reported as severely stressed, and agricultural ponds are drying up.
Locally, the Big South Fork River has been at a record-low streamflow for much of the spring season. The Clear Fork River, which has records that date back further, reached a record-low streamflow during the middle of April 2026. Both streams are flowing at levels typically not seen until mid-summer. The last time spring streamflows were this low was 1963, when less than six-tenths of an inch of rain was received during the first 23 days of April.