Drought in Kansas, September 1 to 30, 2023

During September 2023, the majority of this six-county North Central Kansas area spent the entire month assigned at least Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), with at least 80 percent of the domain mired in at least Moderate Drought (D1) throughout the month as a long-term drought situation forged on. September marked the 20th-consecutive month with at-least-D2 plaguing portions of the local area, and the sixth-straight month with at least limited coverage of Extreme Drought (D3). For much of North Central Kansas, particularly south of the Highway 36 corridor, September was drier-than-normal, and was actually extremely dry in most of Osborne, Rooks and Mitchell counties. In contrast, the month was at least slightly wetter-than-normal across the northern halves of Phillips, Smith and Jewell counties (see below for more specific monthly precipitation details). Focusing on county-level USDM drought category specifics during September, at least 80% of the area remained stable/unchanged (with degradation in southern locales likely held at bay by what had been a fairly wet August). On a positive note, much of mainly northern Phillips and northwestern Smith counties realized one-category improvement. Diving deeper into the details, the month opened with the drought situation as follows: 1) D3 prevailed within roughly one-fourth of North Central Kansas, including most of Rooks County along with smaller portions of Osborne, Mitchell, Smith and Jewell counties...2) A sizable swath of D2 surrounded the D3 zones, with the combined D2+D3 areas comprising around three-fourths of the six counties...3) D1 prevailed across the majority of Phillips/Smith counties along with far southeastern Mitchell...4) a small sliver of northwestern Phillips County hung onto best-off D0 (Abnormally Dry). Through the bulk of September, there were no changes whatsoever across the area, other than a small reduction of D3 within mainly east-central Osborne County. However, due to a heavy rain event that occurred Sept. 21-22, the Sept. 26th USDM brought one-category improvement (D1 to D0) to much of the northern half of Phillips County and roughly the northwestern quadrant of Smith County. As a result of these changes, at month's end the USDM followed this script: 1) D3 persisted within roughly 20% of North Central Kansas, including most of Rooks and western Mitchell counties...2) A sizable swath of D2 still surrounded the D3 zone, with the combined D2+D3 areas still constituting around 75% of North Central Kansas...3) Limited coverage of D1 (only about 10% of the total area) resided across parts of Phillips, Smith and southeastern Mitchell counties...4) Best-off D0 prevailed within much of northern Phillips and northwestern Smith counties (but only accounting for around 15% of North Central Kansas).

Turning to September 2023 rainfall details, it was certainly a split story within North Central Kansas, but with dryness taking center stage across the area as a whole. More specifically, at least three-fourths of the domain checked in at least slightly below normal (roughly less than 2.22), but more concerningly, at least 40% of the area received less than half-normal, particularly within Osborne County and adjacent sections of Rooks/Mitchell. Official ground-truth measurements were few across Osborne County, but a Kansas Mesonet station near Osborne tallied a paltry 0.04, while the NWS Cooperative Observer at Natoma reported only 0.31 (8th-driest Sept. on record out of 91 years...driest since 2011). In sharp contrast, and farther north, the roughly one-fourth of North Central Kansas that benefited from at least slightly above normal rainfall resided almost entirely along/north of Highway 36 within Phillips, Smith and Jewell counties, where totals of 2-3 were common (localized higher). Per around 25 ground-truth gauges (NWS/CoCoRaHS observers and KS Mesonet stations), a few of the incredibly-driest totals included: 0.04 at Osborne, 0.14 seven miles north-northeast of Natoma and 0.23 near Hunter. In sharp contrast, a few of the wettest tallies featured: 3.80 at Lovewell Dam, 3.28 in Phillipsburg and 2.68 four miles south of Burr Oak. Wrapping up with a quick stat highlighting the much-longer-term drought situation, and focusing on one of the driest (versus normal) official NWS Cooperative Observer sites since early-2021, Beloit totaled only 54.69 during the 30-month stretch from April 2021-Sept. 2023...a notable 25.37 below normal/68% of normal.