Significant improvement in drought monitor but extreme & exceptional drought remain for eastern Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Drought has been an ongoing issue across the state and the region over the past year, but recent heavy rains across central and western Nebraska have at least made a decent dent in the drought conditions. According to last week’s drought monitor, nearly 50% of the state was under extreme drought or worse with just a tiny fraction, 0.53%, with no drought conditions. The worst of the drought conditions were centered across the northeast, where exceptional drought conditions were observed across parts of Platte, Stanton, Dodge, Cuming, Madison, Pierce, and Wayne Counties.

Heavy rains over the past two weeks has lead to parts of central and western Nebraska seeing rainfall amounts in that area upwards of three to four times of what they would normally see through the first half of May.

These rains have made a solid dent in the drought conditions for much of western Nebraska. In the latest drought monitor released on Thursday morning, the percentage of state under extreme drought fell from 48.12% to 16.49%, a huge improvement.

We did continue to see worsening of drought across parts of York, Hamilton, Lancaster, Saunders, Douglas, and Washington Counties. 70% of the state remains under severe, or worse, drought conditions, but this is the most improvement we’ve seen in drought conditions in the past year.

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