Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region-Update July 15th, 2014

Despite the lack of heavy rains, as almost every other week has seen, the High Plains region still experienced a decrease in drought conditions! Every category decreased this week by between 0.10 and 3 percent. The D4 (exceptional drought) category decreased by about a fifth so that it is now down to 0.19%, which is the lowest it has been years. This is thanks to recent rains in southeastern Colorado.

Colorado, the area of most change, also saw a reduction in its D3 (extreme drought) category. Over the week it has decreased by a little more than 2.50%. Other than this the state hasn’t seen much change. A recent webinar with the South Dakota state climatologist, Dennis Todey, noted that the worst part of the drought in Colorado is basically carryover from past years. He also said that while recent rains aren’t exactly helping resolve the drought by much, they are definitely helping it from worsening. Another area of significant change is Kansas’ D2 (severe drought) category. It saw an 8.30% decrease from last week. A majority of the area is in D0-D1 drought, which is actually improving week-by-week.

The Weather Prediction Center doesn’t show much in our area for rain in the next week, except for some places in southeastern Colorado receiving about an inch of rain. However, drought conditions are not expected to worsen.

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