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Weekly Nebraska Soil Moisture Report - May 16, 2011
Author: Eric Hunt - University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Published: 2011-05-16 22:15:15
Updated: 2013-06-26 15:48:19
The High Plains Regional Climate Center is now featuring a weekly Nebraska Soil Moisture Index map. For the next month or two, the HPRCC will feature a weekly Nebraska soil moisture report and map on the front page of the website, before moving it to a permanent location on the AWDN Soil Moisture page. If you have any comments or questions about the SMI, please use the contact us page.
"The Soil Moisture Index (SMI) is an index applied to the volumetric water content at the depths of 10, 25, and 50 cm. It is averaged over those three depths and scaled such that 5.0 represents field capacity and -5.0 represents the wilting point. Measurements are made under grass covered, rain fed conditions and may not be representative of soil moisture conditions in fields with standard row crops." To learn more about the SMI, click here.
Nebraska Weekly Soil Moisture Report - May16, 2011
Big soil moisture winners this past week were Scottsbluff, Elgin, Monroe, Gudmundsens, Higgins Ranch, and Mead. Not all locations were as fortunate though as significant rainfall didn’t materialize everywhere in Nebraska. Very warm temperatures the first half of the week allowed for high rates of soil moisture depletion across most of the state, so areas that didn’t receive generous precipitation amounts last Wednesday and Thursday generally have SMI’s around 0.0 or a little below. Chances for precipitation are good for most of the state later this week, so chances for improvement are good for areas that need it.