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Statewide Soil Moisture Report-31 August 2015
Author: Eric Hunt- High Plains Regional Climate Center
Published: 2015-08-31 19:53:54
Updated:
Last week the map was begrudgingly referred to as "the haves and have-nots". This week is a continuation of the haves and have-nots for soil moisture. An inch or more of rain fell on Thursday evening across a wide swath of east central and northeast Nebraska, where soils were generally already sufficiently moist. A rather persistent stratus deck (including some fog and mist) followed the rains over this this section of the state for most of the past weekend, keeping highs in the 70's and further helping to maintain high levels of soil moisture.
It was a different story over the western two-thirds of Nebraska. The recent dry trend continued as most locations saw no measurable precipitation and SMI levels are generally below 0.0 west of Highway 81. Only one site (Sparks) has an SMI in the lowest category, but many sites in the Panhandle and Sand Hills could be there by this time next week if rains don't materialize with the cold frontal passage next weekend. In addition to being bone dry over the past week, there were several days where high temperatures in the panhandle and southwestern Nebraska were in the mid 90's to low 100's, which made those locations about 20-30 degrees warmer than sites across east central and northeastern Nebraska this past weekend.
A warm week is forecast for the entire state and other than later next weekend in eastern Nebraska, widespread precipitation is not expected. Thus, conditions are unlikely to improve and for some sites in the panhandle and south central sections, the deficits are starting to accumulate...
Average SMI by USDA NASS Crop District (see http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/articles/index.php?id=593 for more details). The number in parenthesis shows the change from the previous week.
Northwest (district 10): -2.0
North Central (district 20): -1.5
Northeast (district 30): 4.0
Central (district 50): -1.5
East Central (district 60): 2.3
Southwest (district 70): -1.0
South Central (district 80): -0.5
Southeast (district 90): -1.2
