Drought — Gosper, Nebraska

2023-05-01 to 2023-05-31 · Gosper, Nebraska

Wider weather episode

During May 2023, the entire 24-county South Central Nebraska domain spent at least the vast majority of the month assigned at least Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), marking the first time in 10 years (since April 2013) that the ENTIRE area was briefly blanketed by D2-or-worse. On a more recent note, this also marked the 16th consecutive month that D2 plagued at least some portion of the local area. However, of greater concern during May was the increasing coverage of both Extreme Drought (D3) and worst-off Exceptional Drought (D4). By month's end, at least portions of 16 counties were afflicted with D3-or-worse and at least portions of 10 counties contained D4. This also marked the greatest areal coverage of cumulative D3+D4 within South Central Nebraska in exactly a decade, as a gradually-worsening drought situation over the last few years ratcheted up another notch. Although drought clearly worsened during May especially for central and eastern portions of the area, it was actually not bad news for the entirety of South Central Nebraska as a handful of far western and northern counties managed to pick up near-to-slightly-above normal rainfall, prompting limited drought improvement (see below for more May precipitation details). Focusing on county-level USDM drought category specifics during May, the first two USDM issuances of the month featured mainly degradation. Among the most notable early-month changes included the conversion of a lingering stripe of previously-better-off Moderate Drought (D1) within the majority of most far southern local counties to a mix of D2/D3. In fact, much of especially Webster/Nuckolls/Thayer counties saw a rapid two-category degradation between the April 25th and May 9 USDM issuances. At mid-month, the May 16th USDM actually featured some limited improvement in far northern/western areas, as D3 improved to D2 in parts of mainly Valley/Greeley/Dawson counties. Thereafter, the final two USDM maps of May featured primarily additional degradation in eastern areas, as D3 expanded westward to now include all-or-most of central counties such as Adams and Hall, and D4 also ballooned westward out of extreme northeast counties to now include all-or-most of Nance/Merrick/Hamilton/Clay/Fillmore counties. The only late-month positive note involved a fairly small slice of western Furnas County, which saw a mix of D2-to-D1 and D3-to-D2 improvement. At month's end, things stood as follows: 1) Worst-off D3/D4 dominated most counties along/east of Highway 281, with D4 most concentrated within areas both north of Highway 6/east of Highway 14...2) The vast majority of counties west of Highway 281 (along with most of Greeley/Howard counties) featured D2, except for the sliver of better-off D1 in western Furnas County.

Turning to May 2023 precipitation details, while the majority of South Central Nebraska received below normal rainfall, the overall-biggest story was a significant disparity between far western/northern counties (near to above normal) and a few far eastern counties (incredibly dry). For sure, there was quite a bit of variability across the area, as the majority of the 24-county domain registered anywhere from 1-5 inches, or about 20-115 percent of normal. More specifically, around 80% of the area saw at least slightly below normal May precipitation, with nearly half of the domain registering less than half of normal. However, by far the worst-off real estate included parts of several eastern and a few central counties (particularly York/Fillmore/Hamilton/Polk/Nuckolls/Clay/Adams), where most places received no more than one-third to even LESS THAN ONE-FOURTH of normal! Just to highlight a few lowlights for long-term NWS stations, York notched its DRIEST MAY ON RECORD out of 131 years with merely 0.42, and Hastings airport endured its 5th-driest May on record (out of 127) with 1.22. More notably, both Hastings and York endured their 4th-driest March-May (meteorological spring) on record with merely 2.90 and 2.93, respectively (30-35% of normal). Getting back to May-only data, on the much more fortunate end of the rain gauge, near to even slightly above normal amounts fell within several far western/northern counties including Furnas/Harlan/Gosper/western Dawson/Sherman/Valley. Per around 150 NWS and NeRAIN/CoCoRaHS observers, some of the most pitiful May totals included: 0.42 near York and also near Grafton, 0.43 at McCool Junction, 0.45 near Tobias (in extreme eastern Fillmore County) and 0.53 near Hampton. In sharp contrast, among the very-wettest amounts from the limited above normal areas featured: 7.06 in Alma, 6.23 near Orleans, 6.04 six miles west of Elyria and 5.95 in Beaver City.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1096269. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.