Drought declarations

FEMA has issued 1,222 county-level disaster declarations classified as drought, affecting 1,167 counties across 32 states.

The states with the highest concentration of drought declarations are Texas, Georgia, and Virginia. Each state page links to county-level detail pages where the specific timeline and spending breakdowns for drought events can be reviewed.

A disaster declaration is a formal determination by the President (or FEMA administrator for emergency declarations) that federal assistance is needed. Not every natural event results in a declaration — the state must request one, and FEMA evaluates the damage relative to state and local capacity. The declaration count on this page reflects the number of county-level records in the federal datasets, not the number of individual storms or events.