Weekly Nebraska Soil Moisture Report - August 15, 2011

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 - August 15, 2011 

Changes in soil water were relatively minimal across the state as most places did not see much improvement or deterioration. Exceptions to this were McCook and Elgin, which saw significant improvement from rains in the last week. The western Sandhills region remains the wettest region of the state and the driest locations in the state are still generally along and south of the Platte River.  Rainfall at some of these locations (i.e., Lincoln) was significant but came too quickly for there to be significant improvement for the entire profile. However, further rainfall is likely in eastern sections of the state this week, so chances are good for additional improvement at places that still need it.