Update on Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region - October 16, 2014

The High Plains region continued to experience improving drought conditions during the past week. The forecast for heavy precipitation for southeastern Colorado and eastern Kansas last week did verify, bringing significant improvement to drought-stricken areas. In southeastern Colorado, extreme drought (D3) was completely removed and no longer exists in the state. Areas of severe drought (D2) were also trimmed back. Parts of southeastern Kansas had a 2-category improvement in the U.S. Drought Monitor, and drought was removed from eastern Kansas. The total population in the High Plains region affected by drought is now under 1 million. One interesting thing to note is that improvements in drought across Colorado and Kansas and elsewhere resulted in less than 30 percent of the area in the lower 48 states being in drought, which is the lowest percentage area since December 2011!

The only drought degradation to note in the High Plains region this week occurred in the Dakotas. The pocket of abnormal dryness (D0) that developed a couple weeks ago across southeastern North Dakota and northeastern South Dakota has expanded further, mostly into North Dakota. Elsewhere in the region, it was status quo this week.

The next week looks fairly dry for the most part across the High Plains, with the exception of southwestern Colorado, which could receive about an inch of precipitation. The most drought-stricken regions are not expected to receive much relief from drought in the upcoming 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