Drought in Nebraska, January 1 to 31, 2024

During January 2024, South Central Nebraska saw much-needed improvement in its worst-off drought categories, thanks mainly to well-above-normal snowfall/liquid equivalent precipitation especially within counties along/east of Highway 281. Nonetheless, at least portions of 16 of the 24 South Central Nebraska counties spent the entire month assigned at least Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), while a small part of a 17th county (Greeley) started the month in D2 before it was removed with the Jan. 9th USDM issuance. January marked the 24th-consecutive month with at least D2 plaguing portions of the 24-county area. But focusing on the positive, the Jan. 2nd USDM issuance featured the removal of Exceptional Drought (D4) from portions of seven central and eastern counties (marking the first time in nine months that all of South Central Nebraska was void of D4), and the Jan. 23rd USDM was highlighted by the removal of Extreme Drought (D3) from 11 central/eastern counties (marking the first time in 17 months...since Aug. 2022...that the entire domain was free from D3). The unusually positive drought trends...by mid-winter standards...were prompted by roughly 80 percent of the area receiving above normal monthly precipitation (see below for more specific monthly precipitation details). Focusing on January county-level USDM drought specifics, the month opened with the categorical breakdown as follows: 1) Worst-off D4 plagued portions of seven counties mainly in the northeast quadrant of the area (Hall, Adams, Hamilton, York, Merrick, Nance Polk)...but only constituted around 9% of South Central Nebraska as a whole...2) A sizable buffer zone of D3 surrounded the D4 area, with the combined D3+D4 blanketing much of the eastern half of the domain and accounting for roughly 38% of the total area...3) A smaller buffer zone of D2 flanked the western/southern fringes of the D3 area, comprising around 13% of the total area...4) An even narrower stripe of Moderate Drought (D1) cut across parts of several central local counties along the western edge of the D2, only including around 6% of South Central Nebraska)...5) The majority of the western half of the area, along with far northern local counties, featured a mix of Abnormally Dry (D0) along with locations deemed void of all drought categories whatsoever, with the combined D0+ D-nothing areas constituting the remaining 43% of the domain. The overall-greatest areal coverage of D-nothing prevailed within the following southwestern counties: Gosper, Phelps, Furnas and Harlan...along with decent portions of Dawson and Valley counties. As the month wore on (and as already noted above), by far the main highlight was the outright removal of all D3/D4 from South Central Nebraska...with these worst-off areas improved to D2. In addition, a small part of the existing D2 zone (primarily within Nuckolls/Thayer counties) was improved to D1. As a result of these various improvements, the drought category situation at month's end stood as follows: 1) D2 now prevailed across 46% of the 24-county area (mainly within counties along/east of Highway 281)...2) A narrow buffer zone of D1 flanked the western/southern fringes of the D2 area (only comprising 10% of the domain)...3) The remaining 44% of South Central Nebraska consisted of the aforementioned (and almost entirely unchanged) D0 and D-nothing areas.

Turning to January 2024 precipitation details, it was mostly good news across the area for the second consecutive month, as around 80% of South Central Nebraska measured above normal monthly precipitation (meaning more than roughly 0.57), and roughly one-fourth of the domain boasted at least twice its January normal...mainly within the southeast half. Of the roughly 20% of the area that received below normal precipitation, it was largely concentrated within far western counties including Dawson/Gosper/Furnas. Per around 115 NWS and NeRAIN/CoCoRaHS observers, some of the very-highest monthly tallies featured: 2.32 near Ohiowa, 1.98 six miles east-southeast of Clay Center, 1.66 in Hubbell and 1.64 in Davenport. Several long-time stations notched a Top-10 wettest January, including Osceola (8th-wettest with 1.55) and Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island (10th-wettest with 1.35). Going hand in hand, several long-time stations also recorded a Top-5 snowiest January, including Hebron (3rd-snowiest with 14.9), Osceola (4th-snowiest with 18.5) and Grand Island (5th-snowiest with 17.4). Meanwhile, on the considerably drier and less-snowy side of things, some of the lowest January totals from far western counties included only: 0.19 in Arapahoe, 0.20 five miles southwest of Beaver City, 0.32 eight miles south of Elwood and 0.33 in Edison. On one final note, despite sites such as Central Nebraska Regional Airport (GRI) picking up solidly above normal precipitation for the second-straight month, long-term deficits remained very evident, as GRI totaled only 50.89 over the 34-month stretch from April 2021-January 2024...26.81 BELOW normal/65% of normal.