Drought in Rice, Kansas

The county entered the month in severe drought (D2) which was expanded in the south to extreme drought (D3) on the 5th then further to encompass most of the county on the 19th and lasting through the rest of the month. According to CoCoRaHS and cooperative observers, only around an inch of rain fell for the entire month.

Areas of drought impacting portions of central and south central Kansas persisted through much of the month. A degradation in the conditions occurred in Barton, McPherson and Rice counties with a classification of the extreme category (D3) beginning on May 5th. Northern Reno County was included in the degradation to D3 with a brief improvement following some rain for about a week before returning back to it by the end of the month.