Update on Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region - September 19th, 2014

Drought conditions across the High Plains improved yet again this week, thanks to precipitation that occurred in areas needing it most. The biggest improvement was in Kansas, where the area in D3 (extreme) drought improved from 5.46% to 2.01%. The D3 drought area in northwestern Kansas saw a 1-category improvement. This area received 0.5-1 inches of rain to help alleviate drought conditions. D0 (abnormal dryness) was removed from parts of South Dakota and Nebraska as well. It was mostly status quo throughout the rest of the region.

Next week, the greatest amount of precipitation is expected to fall across central Nebraska and central Kansas, and Colorado could receive quite a bit of rainfall as well. There is a good chance that drought conditions will continue improving in the next week.

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 2 months 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