Statewide Soil Moisture Update

There were few changes to the map in the last week with the dry areas remaining dry and the moist areas remaining moist to near saturation. Here's a quick roundup by region 

Panhandle/Sand Hills: An additional two inches of rain fell over the past week at several locations and Soil Moisture Index (SMI) values remain over 5.0 at several of these sites (Scottsbluff, Alliance, Sidney, Merritt, Halsey, and Dickens), indicating soils are close to saturation.

Eastern: An additional half inch to an inch fell across southeastern Nebraska where SMI values are above 3.0, with a value of 5.2 at Nebraska City. Soil moisture is still sufficiently high at most other eastern sites but generally not at the levels seen back in the first half of May when rainfall was more excessive. 

Central: Much of central Nebraska received under a half inch of precipitation and soils remain fairly dry in the area roughly bounded by Highway 281 to the west and Highway 14 to the east. Minden is this week's loser yet again, with an SMI of -3.1 and a deficit of over an inch in the top two feet of the soil.  

Average SMI by Level 3 Ecoregion (parentheses indicate number of sites included in calculation)

Central Great Plains (15): 1.0  

High Plains (7): 4.8        

Northwestern Great Plains (2): 3.4          

Sand Hills (13): 2.9    

Western Corn Belt (6): 3.7  

** The Soil Moisture Index (SMI) is based on the estimated field capacity and wilting point at three depths (10 cm, 25 cm, 50 cm) at Automated Weather Data Network (AWDN) sites under grass cover. The index may not necessarily be representative of conditions of a nearby field, particularly if differences in total precipitation over the previous week have been significant. **