Drought — Dawson, Nebraska

2025-04-01 to 2025-04-30 · Dawson, Nebraska

Wider weather episode

April 2025 marked the fifth consecutive month with below normal precipitation across much of South Central Nebraska, as a worsening spring drought situation started picking up momentum thanks to a notably-dry stretch. During the month, especially Moderate Drought (D1) and to a lesser extent Severe Drought (D2) expanded in coverage within the 24-county domain (per the U.S. Drought Monitor/USDM), with April marking the ninth-consecutive month with D2 plaguing at least a small part of the area. Breaking down county-level USDM drought category specifics for April in more detail, the month opened with: 1) D2 assigned to only around 2 percent of the domain (small slivers of Dawson/Sherman/Valley counties...2) Roughly 35% of South Central Nebraska contained D1...3) The majority of the area (around 63%) featured Abnormally Dry (D0), reflecting improvements made just a few weeks prior in response to a mid-March blizzard. Unfortunately, any March improvement quickly reversed course thanks to rather significant levels of April dryness, with the vast majority of South Central Nebraska registering LESS THAN HALF normal precipitation for the month. In response, the categorical drought breakdown at month's end stood as follows: 1) D2 areal coverage increased slightly to around 4% of the area (mainly due to a late-month expansion across more of Valley into northwestern Greeley counties)...2) D1 coverage increased significantly to now encompass around 91% of South Central Nebraska...3) the coverage of best-off D0 decreased markedly in response to the aforementioned D1 expansion...now including only around 5% of the area (mostly within Harlan/Franklin/Thayer/Fillmore counties).

Turning to April 2025 precipitation details, and leaning heavily on observations from around 155 NWS and NeRAIN/CoCoRaHS observers, the situation certainly wasn't pretty. Not only did nearly all of South Central Nebraska register below normal precipitation, but around 86% of it saw less than half normal amounts, and roughly 32% of real estate registered LESS THAN ONE-FOURTH NORMAL totals (normal April precipitation across most of the area ranges 2.25-2.80) The majority of observations (the middle 80% of them) generally ranged from 0.45-1.45. The overall-highest amounts (albeit still almost entirely below normal) focused within several counties along the Kansas border, along with parts of Howard/Merrick/Nance counties farther north. Meanwhile, the overall-driest spots were found in several central counties along the Interstate 80/Highway 6 corridors, along with Valley County in the far north. Some of the very-lowest April totals included: 0.23 near Arcadia (3rd-driest April on record out of 126), 0.32 near Elyria, and 0.33 in Bradshaw and also near Gibbon. Meanwhile, some of the wetter tallies featured: 3.84 in Alexandria, 2.19 near Ohiowa, 2.07 near Chester, and 1.95 six miles north of Riverton. At the Tri Cities airports, monthly precipitation ranged from 0.46-0.70, marking a Top-15 driest April on record out of at least 128 years.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1252984. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.