It is not a secret, but we could use some rain across Northeast Ohio, and the way the pattern has been going, we're going to be waiting for some time.
For the month of September, many locations across the state are reporting deficits. There was some relief by the third week of September, but it did not help the entire region evenly.
North of Route 30 towards Lake Erie is still seeing one to two plus-inch deficits for the last 30 days. Cleveland specifically did not even see an inch of rain for the entire month. At Hopkins, rainfall only topped off at 0.75". This is the sixth driest on record for the month of September. Akron/Canton and Mansfield also saw deficits for September.
The top 5 driest Septembers in Cleveland are:
- 1908 - 0.48"
- 1893 - 0.53"
- 1897 - 0.66"
- 1871 & 1964 - 0.74 (tied)
- 2025 - 0.75"
Twenty-five out of 30 days in September were dry in Cleveland in 2025, with 14 straight days of zero in the rain gauge in the middle of the month.
Now, how do we look as we head into the month of October? Well, it doesn't look like there's much chance of improvement happening right away. Rain chances are slim for the first seven days for most of NEO.
Models are hinting at some rain potential across Northeast Ohio by Tuesday, but it is not showing signs of plentiful rainfall totals.
Now, what amount of rain would get us out of the drought? Well, it is more than what you might think. For most of the region, we would need in a month's time between 4.5 inches and 5.5 inches of rain to say we are out of the drought we are currently in, as of this writing. Some areas in our southeastern communities, where the drought is the worst, would need over 8 inches of rain in a month!
So the drought looks to persist for the foreseeable future. But one silver lining is that we were much worse at this time last year, and we were able to get out of that drought by the end of this past spring.
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