Watering gardens in Cleveland, Ohio

Water today

It is over a fortnight since any rain reached the roots.

Updated this morning
Today

Has it rained enough in Cleveland?

The last rain heavy enough to soak in fell over a week ago. What has fallen since wet the leaves and no more.

Cleveland has had 30.3mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 92.1mm — and the driest October in the last 30 years still managed 44.2mm. This is drier than anything on that record.

Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Thirty years

Rain in Cleveland through a normal year

Across a normal year Cleveland gets about 1095.8mm of rain, most of it in June (113.7mm) and least in February (68.7mm).

A normal October in Cleveland has rain on 15 days. Only 11 of them bring enough to reach a root.

That makes Cleveland one of the wetter places this site covers in the United States in October — 13th of 30, against Seattle at the wet end (131.5mm) and Las Vegas at the dry end (8.4mm).

JFebMAMJunJASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means

What that means for what you grow

  • Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
  • Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
  • Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
  • Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.