Drought — Eastern Cherry, Nebraska

2023-01-01 to 2023-01-31 · Eastern Cherry, Nebraska

Event narrative

Over far southeastern Cherry County, exceptional (D4) drought conditions improved to extreme (D3) drought conditions by the end of January. Over northeastern Cherry county, severe (D2) drought conditions persisted through the end of the month. The cooperative observer at Valentine Lakes NWR reported 1.92 inches of precipitation in January. This was 1.48 inches above the normal of 0.44 inches. At the Valentine airport, 2.36 inches of precipitation fell in January. This was 2.04 inches above the normal of 0.32 inches.

Wider weather episode

Precipitation across western and north central was well above normal for January and led to improvement in drought conditions across portions of north central, central and southwestern Nebraska. Precipitation totals for cooperative observers across the area ranged from 1.16 inches at Ellsworth 2W to 5.25 inches at Purdum. Heavy snow occurred across the area on January 18th with upwards of 2 feet of snow being reported in Custer County. North Platte had its heaviest calendar day snowfall on record with 13.9 inches on the 18th. Valentine had its wettest January on record.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1077880. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.