Update on Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region - June 2, 2015

Drought improvements continued this week, although not quite as impressive as the last few weeks have been. Most of the precipitation fell in the western and northern parts of the High Plain region. Improvements were made in southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, southern Kansas, eastern South Dakota, and southwestern North Dakota. In some of these areas rainfall upwards of three inches was seen, while rainfall greater than one inch throughout the Plains was not uncommon. There is no longer any Severe Drought (D2) or worse in the High Plains, which is great news! Moderate Drought (D1) still covers about 6.12% of our region and Abnormal Dryness (D0) covers about 22%.

In North Dakota producers were able to continue planting despite the rain, and frost-damaged plants from the previous weeks were able to be replanted. In South Dakota, mild weather allowed for midweek planting to resume across much of the state. Further south in Nebraska wet conditions in the west continued to hinder fieldwork, but planting was possible in the east. However, cool and wet conditions have led to some producers applying fungicide to their wheat crop to prevent disease development. Kansas was the least productive which coincided with the most widespread rainfall. On average the state only had 1.5 days that were suitable for fieldwork.

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