Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region-Update November 14

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the High Plains Region remained mostly dry this past week, with the exception of about one inch of precipitation in southeastern Nebraska and Kansas.  Due to the dryness few changes in drought conditions occurred this week.

In the Region as a whole, small changes were made to the moderate drought (D1) and abnormally dry (D0) categories this week. Changes were on the order of hundredths of a percent. The area of D1 or worse totals 19.31% this week, an increase of 0.02%, while the area of D0 decrease 0.08%, to total 49.72%.

The slight increases in D1 area occurred in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The slight decreases in D0 area occurred in Nebraska, and South Dakota. All other categories remained the same this week.

Although changes were limited this week, this year as a whole has seen drought conditions improve dramatically. The last line of the table below shows the categorical percentages from the first of the year.

To learn more about the U.S. Drought Monitor, please see: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu

To see the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook, please see the Climate Prediction Center here:http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/sdo_summary.html

To see the areas of agriculture affected by the drought, please see the USDA link (Unavailable with Government Shutdown): http://www.usda.gov/oce/weather/Drought/AgInDrought.pdf

To see the impacts of the drought, please see the Drought Impact Reporter here: http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/

      Drought Condition (Percent Area): High Plains Region