Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region-Update June 24th, 2014

There aren’t really any new developments in this week's drought monitor update. Every category saw a marginal decrease (~1%) due in part to the moderate amounts of rain over the plains.  The region is seeing a trend towards getting out of drought. There are still some flooding concerns along the Missouri river, but less locally heavy rainfalls this past week has decreased the threat somewhat.

Nebraska saw probably the best drought improvement the past seven days. Over 5% of the state is officially out of drought bringing the total p to 49.81%. Moderate drought only makes up 17.89% of the state, while the remaining ~30% is mostly made up of the abnormally dry category (D0). 

Colorado, where some of the worse part of the drought is, saw no change at all over the week. Southeastern Colorado has had nearly 10% of the state in the D3-D4 categories, extreme drought to exceptional drought, for almost the past month. 

Kansas, too, saw little to no change this week. However persistent rains over the past two days may lead to a change in next week's drought update.

A look towards the next seven days shows areas in central and eastern Kansas, and central and eastern Nebraska getting some precipitation that should help to ease the drought in that region. Elsewhere in the plains looks to receive near normal amounts of precipitation. 

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: 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