Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region- Update July 26

Although rain has fallen in many areas of the High Plains Region, it is doing very little in helping the drought conditions. The High Plains Region as a whole has 86.74% of its area in a moderate drought (D1) or worse condition according to the latest release of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Area of Severe Drought (D2) or worse increased again this week by almost 9% to now consume 76.98% of the Region. Area of extreme drought (D3) increased the most this week by 16.44% and now totals 44.51% of the Region. Even with rain in portions of South Dakota it was not enough to keep up with the drought. D3 can now be found in the state this week and has a total area of 20.38%. To learn more about the U.S. Drought Monitor, please see: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu 

Nebraska has had many spots without measureable precipitation in the past 30 days. Couple the lack of precipitation with above normal temperatures and Nebraska has itself in a bad situation. This week an area of exceptional drought (D4) has formed in the central portion of the state. This area of D4 totals 2.8% of the state. Area of D3 or worse now totals 64.07% of the state, almost 60% more than last week. Check out the table below for the drought conditions over the past month for Kansas. To view more statistics of the High Plains Region and each state check out the Tabular Statistics here: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_highplains.htm 

                       Drought Condition (Percent Area): Nebraska