Drought — Merrick, Nebraska

2023-08-01 to 2023-08-31 · Merrick, Nebraska

Wider weather episode

During August 2023, at least parts of 20 of the 24 South Central Nebraska counties spent the entire month assigned at least Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), with over 90 percent of the domain mired in at least Moderate Drought (D1) throughout the month as a long-term drought situation carried on. August marked the 19th-consecutive month with at least D2 plaguing portions of the local area, the 13th-straight month with at least Extreme Drought (D3) afflicting some locations, and the fifth-consecutive month with worst-off Exceptional Drought (D4) maintaining its dire grasp within a handful of eastern counties. Generally speaking, August rainfall trends were not overly-positive, but keeping with recent trends there was a fair degree of variability, with some areas worse off than others and limited places actually realizing somewhat above normal amounts. On the least fortunate note, the overall-worst-off D4 zone over eastern counties, which actually picked up solidly above normal rainfall in July, reverted right back to being notably dry during August (see below for more specific precipitation details). Focusing on county-level USDM drought category specifics during August, the majority of South Central Nebraska remained stable/unchanged, including almost no change whatsoever in the coverage of D3/D4. However, parts of mainly several southwestern counties realized some one-category improvement. Diving deeper into the details, the month opened with the drought situation standing as follows: 1) Worst-off D4 encompassed most of Hamilton County, along with smaller portions of all bordering counties (along with parts of Nance County)...2) A fairly large zone of D3 dominated the majority of counties along/east of Highway 14 (along with large portions of Adams/Hall counties along Highway 281)...3) The vast majority of the remainder of South Central Nebraska featured a varied mix of D2/D1, with D1 most prevalent in the southwest quadrant of the area...4) A small part of southern Harlan County boasted best-off D0. As it turned out, the vast majority of categorical changes during August occurred very early in the month, as the August 8th USDM issuance brought one-category improvement to a number of southwestern counties. This included an improvement from D1 to Abnormally Dry D0 within much of Furnas, Phelps and Gosper counties, and improvement from D2 to D1 in much of Dawson, southern Franklin and southwestern Webster counties. Thereafter, nearly the entire area remained unchanged for the remainder of August. Thus, at month's end the USDM depicted the following: 1) Worst-off D4 held firm over Hamilton County and small parts of several nearby counties (but fortunately only comprising roughly eight percent of South Central Nebraska as a whole)...2) A sizable swath of D3 (encompassing roughly 35% of the area) persisted over the majority of counties along/east of Highway 14 (along with large portions of mainly Adams/Hall counties along Highway 281)...3) The majority of the remainder of South Central Nebraska remained under a varied mix of D2/D1...4) The best-off D0 category included the majority of Furnas and Phelps counties, along with smaller parts of several neighboring counties.

Turning to August 2023 rainfall details, the overall story centered around at least modestly below normal rainfall, but with some definite variability in play. The majority of the 24-county domain registered somewhere between 1.00-4.25 inches...generally 30-125 percent of normal. Unfortunately, at least 70% of South Central Nebraska checked in at least slightly below normal, but most areas were not bone dry either, with at least 60 percent of the area measuring at least two-thirds of normal. That being said, at least one-fifth of the area picked up less than half-normal (meaning generally less than 1.70). In sharp contrast to July, the overall-driest counties in August were primarily clustered in eastern and northern parts of the area (particularly Polk/York/Valley). Meanwhile, the overall-wettest locales, featuring at least modestly above normal amounts, were found primarily within portions of far southern counties (along the KS border), along with localized parts of other counties such as Gosper, Dawson and western Adams. Per around 170 NWS and NeRAIN/CoCoRaHS observers, some of the lowest August rainfall totals included: 0.64 six miles west of Elyria, 0.72 at Stromsburg, 0.75 seven miles south-southeast of Ord and 0.92 in North Loup and also just southwest of Grand Island. In sharp contrast, among the very-highest monthly tallies featured: 6.54 at Harlan County Lake, 6.13 in Hubbell and also three miles northeast of Chester, 5.74 four miles east of Hardy and 5.68 four miles west of Franklin. On an interesting note, the NWS Cooperative Observer at Osceola swung from registering its 13th-wettest July (out of 120) to enduring its 24th-driest August.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1117920. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.