Drought — Mitchell, Kansas

2024-07-23 to 2024-07-31 · Mitchell, Kansas

Wider weather episode

Following a 2.5 month respite (since early-May) with no worse than Moderate Drought (D1) assigned to any portion of this six-county North Central Kansas area by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), late-July 2024 unfortunately saw the return of Severe Drought (D2) to parts of Mitchell County...along with a sizable increase in the coverage of D1 and Abnormally Dry (D0) within the locale as whole. These degradations were driven by persistently drier-than-normal conditions/gradually increasing rainfall deficits during June-July for the vast majority of the area. Specifically in July, roughly 95 percent of the area registered at least slightly below normal rainfall (see below for more detailed July precipitation info). Taking a closer look at changes in USDM drought categories within North Central Kansas between the end of May and the end of July, May closed with no D2 to be found, but approximately 26% of the six-county area (primarily parts of Osborne/Mitchell counties) was assigned D1. Meanwhile, D0 blanketed around 53% of the domain, including all or most of Rooks/Jewell counties. The remaining roughly 21% of the area boasted drought-free D-nothing, including the majority of Smith/Phillips counties. Throughout June and most of July, the coverage of D1/D0 fluctuated modestly, but D2 was held at bay. However, this changed with the July 23rd USDM issuance, which introduced a fairly localized zone of D2 to primarily the southwest quadrant of Mitchell County. This newly-issued D2, along with further expansion of D1/D0 on the final USDM issuance of the month, made the end-of-July drought breakdown stand as follows: 1) The aforementioned localized D2 in Mitchell County constituted only around 4% of the six-county area...2) Roughly 66% of North Central Kansas contained D1 (including the majority of all counties except Phillips)...3) The remaining approximately 30% of the area was assigned D0...overwriting any lingering swaths of D-nothing.

Turning to July 2024 rainfall details, around 95% of North Central Kansas checked in at least slightly below normal (meaning less than roughly 4.26), but more concerningly, at least 35% of the area picked up less than half of the monthly normal (particularly evident in parts of Mitchell/Rooks/Jewell counties). Of the tiny fraction of the domain that managed slightly above normal rain, it concentrated mainly in parts of Osborne and central Smith counties. Per around 30 NWS/CoCoRaHs observers, along with a few Kansas Mesonet stations, some of the driest known July totals included: 1.19 in Plainville, 1.52 five miles south-southwest of Scottsville and 1.58 five miles west-southwest of Beloit. As for the scant number of near-to-slightly above normal measurements, they included: 4.31 in Smith Center, 4.38 near Osborne and 3.71 seven miles north-northeast of Natoma. Per the NWS Cooperative observer at Beloit (in close proximity to the freshly-issued blotch of D2), year-to-date precipitation through the end of July totaled 13.04...5.51 below normal/70% of normal. However, the majority of this annual deficit had just racked up during June-July, with the cumulative, two-month amount of only 4.23 falling 4.38 shy of normal (49% of normal).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1197900. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.