Drought expands in the east, shrinks in the west; Lancaster County under exceptional drought for the first time

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Lincoln - as well as Lancaster County - are setting records that we don’t want to set. As we finished May, we finished the Meteorological Spring season, which encompasses March, April, and May, as one of the driest on record. The Lincoln Airport only saw 1.73″ of precipitation through those three months - over six inches below normal and good for the 3rd driest Meteorological Spring on record. That included just 0.63″ of precipitation in March (the 26th driest on record), 0.59″ in April (the 8th driest on record), and 0.51″ in May (the second driest on record).

It’s no surprise then with these numbers - and similar numbers for the surrounding areas in southeastern Nebraska - that drought continues to expand across southeastern parts of the state. That includes an expansion of D4 drought, or exceptional drought, into Lincoln and Lancaster County for the first time in the history of the drought monitor, which was started back in 2000.

Exceptional drought now covers a wide swath of eastern Nebraska, from up near Wayne in northeast Nebraska, down to just south of I-80. Impacts in these areas could include exceptional and widespread crop or pasture losses as well as shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells that could create water emergencies. Most of central and eastern Nebraska are now under severe, extreme, or exceptional drought conditions.

This week’s drought monitor wasn’t all bad news though - some exceptionally heavy rains across southwest Nebraska helped reduce drought in these areas, going from severe drought down to moderate drought, with some areas even going down two categories into the “abnormally dry” status. Some of these areas saw anywhere from 6″ to 12″ of rain last week, which did cause flooding issues in these areas.

June, on average, is still one of the wettest months of the year for Lincoln and for many areas across the state. We’ll need to hope for more plentiful and widespread precipitation over the summer months to help put a dent in drought conditions. We started off on the right foot, as Lincoln saw over an inch of rain on Thursday with some areas seeing over three inches of rain in parts of southeastern Nebraska. The longer range outlooks aren’t leaning one way or the other in terms of above or below average precipitation over the coming weeks and months, so we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for now.

Just as a note, the data cutoff time for observed precip is Tuesday morning, so the rain Lincoln and parts of southeastern Nebraska has received won’t be reflected in the drought monitor until next week.

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