Weekly High Plains Drought Update - March 1, 2018

Cooler than normal temperatures continued across the High Plains this week along with local precipitation in southeastern Kansas and eastern South Dakota. This welcomed precipitation brought improvement to the moderate drought (D1) conditions in the mentioned areas along with a reduction of severe drought (D2) conditions in southeastern Kansas. Abnormally dry (D0) conditions were also reduced in southeastern South Dakota, northeastern Colorado, eastern Nebraska, northwestern Kansas, and northeastern Wyoming. However, D1 conditions in western Kansas expanded farther north, now covering 39% of the state.

Colorado’s snowpack conditions degraded slightly this week due to below- normal precipitation. The following are updated Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) percentages of median for Colorado basins, as of March 1st:  Arkansas (61%), Colorado (83%), Gunnison (62%), North Platte (89%), San Miguel, Dolores, Animas, and San Juan (53%), South Platte (89%), Upper Rio Grande (57%), and Yampa and White (80%).  Wyoming snowpack continued to be above 100% of median despite below-normal precipitation in the state.

The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center’s 6 - 10 day outlook favors below-normal temperatures in eastern Kansas, most of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and most of Wyoming, while above-normal temperatures are favored in southern Colorado. Below-normal precipitation is also favored for the majority of the High Plains region. The Quantitative Precipitation 7-day Forecast is predicting precipitation across much of the High Plains except for eastern Colorado and western Kansas, with up to 1.25 inches in North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, and mountainous areas of.