A thunderstorm moves near Elm Creek in June 2023. (Brian Neben, Courtesy)
HASTINGS — Although not as severely dry as 2022, 2023 was another overall-drier-than-normal year across most of our 30-county coverage area.
Roughly 75 percent of the area received at least slightly below normal precipitation, with counties east of Highway 281 the overall-driest.
Meanwhile, of the roughly one-fourth of the area that received slightly above normal precipitation, it was almost entirely concentrated within counties west of Highway 281. Digging a bit deeper into the numbers, the majority of the 30-county area tallied between 20-27 inches of precipitation, or generally 75-100 percent of the 30-year normal.
Put another way, most places received somewhere between 8″ below normal annual precipitation and one inch above normal annual precipitation.
More Details and Drought Trends
Thankfully, it was not as severely dry in 2023 as it was during 2022, which was a Top 10 to 15 driest year on record for much of our area.
That being said, around 75 percent of our area still registered at least slightly below normal for the year. Based on data from dozens of NWS and CoCoRaHS/NeRAIN observers and also radar-estimated analysis, some places especially within the following central/eastern local counties fell at least six inches short of normal: Hall, Hamilton, York, Polk, Fillmore, Thayer, Mitchell.
On the flip side, roughly 25 percent of our area received at least slightly above normal precipitation, most heavily concentrated within portions of counties west of the Highway 281 corridor including: Harlan, Gosper, Valley, Sherman, western Buffalo and northern Phillips.
For our 30-county area as a whole, and there were certainly various exceptions, a few of the overall-driest months versus normal were March, April, May and October.
In contrast, the overall-wettest months versus normal were January, February, June and December.
Not surprisingly given that below normal precipitation prevailed most of the year in most places, drought of varying intensity was a big story during 2023. Per weekly issuances of the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), 2023 opened with 95 percent of our coverage area blanketed by Moderate Drought, D1, to Extreme Drought, D3.
Halfway through the year, the June 27 USDM painted a worsening situation, with our ENTIRE 30-county area covered by Moderate, D1, to Exceptional Drought, D4, including 42 percent of the area in D3-D4, most heavily concentrated east of Highway 281 in Nebraska. Fortunately, the latter half of 2023 brought at least some improvement, as the Dec. 26 USDM only had 62 percent of our area under D1-D4, and the coverage of worst-off D3-D4 had slimmed to 28 percent, still most concentrated east of Highway 281 in Nebraska.
On a positive note at year’s end: 16 percent of our area was indicated to be void of all drought categories whatsoever, even Abnormally Dry D0, including large parts of Furnas, Gosper, Phelps, Harlan and Valley counties.
Highlighting just a few “quirky”/notable precipitation trends within our area during 2023:
1: Our official NWS observer near York (York 3N) totaled merely 6.97 inches through the first half of the year, January to June an incredible 8.40 inches below normal and marking the driest first half of a year since 1970!
However, July then brought an incredible change in fortune, with 7.31 inches of rainfall ranking as the 9th-wettest July on record out of 130 years. Unfortunately, the annual total at York 3N still ended up 8.08 inches below normal.
2: In our extreme southern coverage area, our official NWS observer near Plainville Kan., endured two incredibly dry, two-month stretches during the year. First, March-April combined yielded merely 0.36 inches, marking the driest March and April on record out of 115 years!
Then in the fall, September-October combined totaled just 0.75 inches, marking the second driest September and October on record! Fortunately, the other eight months of 2023 featured near-to-above normal precipitation, but Plainville still ended up 5.02 inches below normal for the year.
