Update on Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region - February 17, 2015

Most of our area reported little to no precipitation over the past week. If you look at the map to the right, you will see that most areas had a negative departure from normal precipitation. Eastern Colorado and northern Wyoming were some of the only areas in the High Plains region that received normal, or above normal, precipitation. Throughout the Rockies warm temperatures and little precipitation has melted the snowpack by 4 to 12 inches. You can see this in the drought change maps where the D1 (moderate drought) category has expanded to better show the low mountain snow water content. Parts of Kansas and Nebraska saw no dramatic changes in temperature or precipitation, thus the drought categories remained the same.

Over the next week the National Weather Service calls for an inch or more of precipitation for parts of the Rockies and central Plains. This should be good news for our area, but we will have to wait to see how it pans out.

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/MapsAndData/DataTables.aspx

Drought Condition (Percent Area): High Plains Region