Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region-Update August 12th, 2014

Good news coming with this week’s drought change! The High Plains region no longer has any areas in the D4 (exceptional drought) category, which is the first time in well over two years! Monsoonal rains in southeastern Colorado is the reason for this. 

As for the rest of the categories, they all saw a decrease in drought. The High Plains saw 37.94% of its region in drought last week decrease by almost two percent.  

Nebraska actually benefitted the most this week after the state experienced heavy rains throughout the week in excess of four inches in some spots. Almost 10% of the state was removed from the D0 category leaving only 39% of the state in drought. As well monsoonal rains prevented drought degradation in other parts of the region, especially southern Colorado. South Dakota actually saw an increase in drought in its western-central region.

The upcoming week seems to be about average for the amount of rainfall, so we will just have to wait and see what that does for drought conditions in the High Plains. 

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/

Check out the table below for the drought conditions over the past month for the High Plains Region.

To view statistics of the High Plains Region and each state check out the Regional Statistics here: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DataArchive/Tables.aspx?high_plains

  Drought Condition (Percent Area): High Plains Region