Drought — York, Nebraska

2024-02-01 to 2024-02-29 · York, Nebraska

Wider weather episode

February 2024 marked the third-consecutive month with near-to-above normal precipitation across most of South Central Nebraska, allowing a slow-but-steady improvement in drought conditions to march onward. Nonetheless, at least parts of 15 of the 24 counties spent the entire month assigned Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor, while a small sliver of a 16th county (Franklin) started the month with D2 before it was removed on the Feb. 6th USDM issuance. February marked the 25th-consecutive month with at least D2 plaguing portions of the 24-county area. But focusing on the positive, February featured a modest reduction in the areal coverage of not only D2 from South Central Nebraska, but also Moderate Drought (D1) and Abnormally Dry (D0) categories, as roughly two-thirds of the area received at least slightly above normal precipitation...mainly in the form of rain and not snow (see below for more detailed monthly precipitation info). Focusing on February county-level USDM drought specifics, the month opened with the categorical breakdown as follows: 1) D2 prevailed across roughly 46% of the 24-county area (mainly within several counties along/east of Highway 281)...2) A narrow buffer zone of D1 flanked the western/southern fringes of the D2 (only comprising 10% of the domain)...3) The remaining 44% of South Central Nebraska consisted of a varied mix of D0 along with locations deemed void of all drought categories whatsoever, with the overall-greatest areal coverage of D-nothing residing within the following counties: Gosper, Phelps, Furnas, Harlan, Valley, Greeley. As the month got underway, it turned out that the majority of modest categorical improvements occurred early-on, with the Feb. 6th USDM issuance featuring a slight reduction in all three categories residing within the area (D2/D1/D0). These slight improvements included the removal of D2 from the far northeastern fringes of Franklin County along with the majority of eastern Kearney County, and also the removal of any remaining D0 from portions of Phelps and Harlan counties. Through the rest of February, drought categories held status quo for the vast majority of South Central Nebraska, although the Feb. 13th issuance removed any remaining D0 from Dawson and Gosper counties. In the wake of these welcomed changes, the end-of-month drought category situation stood as follows: 1) D2 coverage decreased to roughly 42% of the 24-county area (still almost entirely within counties along/east of Highway 281)...2) A narrow buffer zone of D1 still flanked the western/southern fringes of the D2 (still only comprising about 10% of the domain)...3) A similarly-narrow buffer zone of D0 ringed the western fringes of the D1 (only constituting about 8% of the area)...4) the remaining approximately 40% of South Central Nebraska (almost entirely west of Highway 281) was assigned drought-free D-nothing.

Turning to February 2024 precipitation details, it was mostly good news for the third-straight month, as roughly two-thirds of South Central Nebraska measured at least slightly above normal precipitation (meaning more than roughly 0.72), and around 80% of the area checked in between 70-250% of normal. Put another way, few places were overly-wet, but few were overly-dry either. The overall-wettest areas (greatest concentration of 1.20 or more) focused within the following southwestern counties: Dawson, Gosper, Phelps, Kearney, Furnas, Harlan and Franklin. Meanwhile, the overall-driest locales (greatest concentration of 0.60 or less) primarily resided within the following far northern/northeastern counties: Polk, Nance, Valley, Greeley, York. Per around 120 NWS and NeRAIN/CoCoRaHS observers, some of the very-highest monthly tallies featured: 1.82 eight miles south-southwest of Hildreth, 1.67 six miles southwest of Lexington, 1.63 at Bloomington and 1.56 in Wilcox. Meanwhile, a few of the very-lowest February tallies included: 0.20 near Shelby, 0.30 near Genoa, 0.47 at Ord airport and 0.52 in Osceola. On one final note, despite sites such as Central Nebraska Regional Airport (GRI) notching above normal precipitation for the third-straight month, long-term deficits remained intact, as GRI totaled only 51.75 over the 35-month stretch from April 2021-February 2024...26.69 BELOW normal/66% of normal.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1157426. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.