Update on Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region - March 24, 2015

The High Plains have remained warm the past week, with some spots seeing temperatures 10 degrees above average. There was also spotty precipitation around the High Plains, but most that saw precipitation received less than an inch. The combination of very warm temperatures, and  mostly below normal precipitation steadied or worsened the drought for most of our region.

In southern and central Kansas abnormally dry conditions have lasted for several weeks, soil moisture conditions worsened, and streamflows were much less than normal, which prompted the United States Drought Monitor (USDM) author to label this area as experiencing moderate drought. While areas in the dakotas saw the most precipitation over the week, they were also the warmest and experienced rapid snowmelt. This along with seasonal below-average precipitation led the USDM author to expand D0 (abnormal dryness) and D1 (moderate drought) throughout the dakotas.

A general lack of precipitation coupled with the lack of snowfall throughout most of the winter in western Colorado had the USDM author degrade their drought class to severe drought. Within just a couple hundred miles to the east, an increase in precipitation improved drought conditions to D0.

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