Drought is Here to Stay, Through Winter at Least

By: Kim Eiten - Email

Updated: Wed 5:21 AM, Oct 03, 2012

"This drought is kind of locked in place so to speak." - Climatologist Mark Svoboda

Although cooler temperatures may be coming, there's no end in sight.

Don't count on saying goodbye to the drought anytime soon.

Snow is on the way as early as this week. If you think that's going to turn these dry conditions around, the experts say think again.

It's been months of suffering crops and overall dryness, and it's too late for a come back now.

"This drought is kind of locked in place so to speak," climatologist Mark Svoboda said.

We're nine inches short of our normal precipitation.

"It's going to take awhile before we can say that we're really recovering from this drought," said Michael Hayes of the National Drought Mitigation Center.

And, even if it blizzards all winter, it may be a lost cause.

"If we get enough moisture this winter, my worry is what if the ground freezes and then there's no way for this water to get into the soil and the next spring it just runs off down the streets, down the creeks, down the ditches and it doesn't get into the ground?," University of Nebraska-Lincoln Professor Ken Dewey said. "It's going to be a problem to try and make up this deficit this winter and even if we do, will that water go into the soil? Not if it's frozen."

So, where's the turnaround?

It won't be anytime this year.

"We need to start out with a nice early spring wet season going into the planting season," Dewey said.

"It'll really put all of our eggs in a basket in what kind of precipitation we'll probably get is going to be dependent on what happens next spring in 2013, and not so much on what happens now," Svoboda said.

But, looking to a La Nina to El Nino shift, those odds may not be all bad.

"Signify a shift in our fortunes come next winter or spring, so we'll have to see how that pans out, how strong it is and where the winter precip. pattern ends up," Svoboda said.

In the meantime, dry conditions are here to stay.

"Definitely any precipitation is going to be welcome," Hayes said.

Those experts label this year's conditions the "2012 Drought."

They're not throwing any titles on next year yet. It's just wait and see.