Update on Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region - August 11, 2015

Most of the High Plains region was cooler than normal during the past week except for parts of southern Kansas and eastern Colorado. These spots ranged from two to four degrees above average last week. Due to cooler conditions and recent rains, Abnormal Dryness (D0) was removed from most of Nebraska and northwestern Kansas. Additionally Moderate Drought (D1) was removed from Kansas. D0 was removed from a lot of the Dakotas as well, except for one area in southwestern South Dakota where D0 was shifted westward to encompass agricultural areas. Our region is over 90% drought free which is the first time since at least August of 2010.

In North Dakota hot and dry weather helped small grains to rapidly mature and additionally provided great conditions for harvesting. However, some spots in the state are starting to show stress of row crops. Most of South Dakota saw hail and rain at least once throughout the end of the week. The heaviest precipitation was found in the northern and eastern parts of the state. The harvesting of small grains continued. Corn, soybeans, and oats were all near or ahead of their five-year development averages.

An inch or more of rainfall and above normal temperatures were common across most of Nebraska. While crops were doing well, so well that irrigation slowed in many of Nebraska’s typically drier counties, livestock became stressed due to the hot and humid conditions. While the north central portion of Kansas received up to three inches of rain, the remainder of the state only saw about a half of an inch of precipitation. All of Kansas experienced at or below normal temperatures for the week.

In Colorado hot, dry conditions continued last week combined with sporadic precipitation events. This week Wyoming was relatively cool and wet. River and stream levels are starting to decline a bit, so stock water supplies may become a concern in the near future.

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