Drought — Valley, Nebraska

2025-02-01 to 2025-02-28 · Valley, Nebraska

Wider weather episode

February 2025 marked the third consecutive month with below normal liquid-equivalent precipitation across most of South Central Nebraska, keeping Moderate Drought (D1) firmly in place across the majority of the 24-county domain (per the U.S. Drought Monitor/USDM). More concerningly, February marked the seventh-consecutive month with Severe Drought (D2) plaguing at least a small part of the area. Taking a closer look at county-level USDM drought category specifics within South Central Nebraska during February, despite the recent dryness there was actually minimal change in official drought status (largely due to winter precipitation deficits contributing less toward drought impacts compared to other times of year). The only official change involved a slight increase in the coverage of D1 to include more of primarily southern Dawson, southwestern Buffalo and northwestern Gosper counties. Thus, the categorical breakdown at month's end stood as follows: 1) D2 still only included around 2 percent of the area (confined to small portions of Dawson/Sherman/Valley counties)...2) The areal coverage of D1 increased slightly to now encompass roughly 83% of South Central Nebraska, including all counties along/east of Highway 281...3) the remaining roughly 15% of real estate (entirely within the southwest quadrant of the area) contained best-off Abnormally Dry (D0).

Turning to February 2025 precipitation details, roughly 78% of South Central Nebraska registered at least slightly below normal monthly precipitation. However, it was a somewhat unique month in that although most of South Central Nebraska picked up a respectable 6-12 of snow, it contained comparatively meager liquid equivalent precipitation due to favoring a dry/powdery consistency (thanks to falling during very cold temperatures). As a result, the majority of the domain reported only 0.36-0.80 of total precipitation (normal February precipitation across most of the area ranges 0.64-0.80). Per data from around 120 NWS and NeRAIN/CoCoRaHS observers, there really weren't any clearly defined geographical breakpoints between wetter versus drier (likely due in part to the inherent challenges associated with accurately measuring the liquid equivalent of drier snow). That being said, some of the overall-lowest February amounts included: 0.36 at Hebron, Hubbell and Greeley, 0.38 in Cambridge and 0.41 near Shelby. Meanwhile, a few of the highest February totals featured: 1.20 six miles north of Riverton, 1.03 near Orleans, 0.84 in Wilsonville and 0.78 near Genoa.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1233283. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.