Drought update June 22

June started out strong in terms of rainfall, and repeated rounds of storms that afternoon dropped 0.89 inches of rain at Eppley Airport! Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Storms developed, even in the metros, but they all managed to evade Epley Airport Here are the details of rainfall so far in June this year.

Rainfall varied across the metro due to the intermittent nature of the storms. Here’s a short list of rainfall totals across the metro so far in June:
Ralston – 1.56 inches
Millard – 1.28″
West Omaha – 1.71 inches
Elkhorn – 1.72 inches
Valley – 1.85″
Pennington – 0.92 inches

In Sarpi County, where rainfall was more abundant, rainfall totals were slightly higher:
Butterfly – 2.37 inches
The View – 2.57 inches
Bellevue – 1.90″
Springfield – 2.44 inches
Gretna – 1.53″

Across eastern Nebraska, precipitation totals are higher:
Lincoln – 2.58 inches
Norfolk – 2.61 inches
Columbus – 0.50″
Fremont – 2.01 inches
Blair – 1.51″
Height – 1.13 inches
West Point – 2.49 inches
Wayne – 2.34 inches
Wahoo – 2.36 inches
Plattsmouth – 2.96 inches
Nebraska City – 3.16 inches
Reddish brown – 2.35 inches
Falls City – 2.14 inches
Beatrice – 1.47 inches
Crete – 0.99″
Seward – 1.87 inches
City of David – 0.93 inches

In western Iowa, precipitation totals were slightly lower:
Council Bluffs – 1.94 inches
Logan – 1.27 inches
Mapleton – 0.40 inch
Denison – 1.78 inches
Carol – 1.82″
Harlan – 1.76 inches
Audubon – 1.74 inches
Auckland – 2.00 inches
Atlantic – 2.01 inches
Red Oak – 0.44 inch
Corning – 0.86 inch
Glenwood – 2.67 inches
Sydney – 1.52 inches
Shenandoah – 1.19 inches
Clarinda – 1.48 inches
Bedford – 1.09 inches

A dry June, on the back of a record-dry May, continues to plunge us deeper into the rainfall deficit. We are about 6 inches below our year-to-date average. We’ve had a wet winter, which has helped us avoid sliding into the record books for any of the driest years on record.

KMTV

All of this brings us to today’s drought update, where the severe drought category (red, 4/5) has been expanded east and south to include the entire Omaha metro. Exceptional drought (brown, 5/5) has extended into Saline County. Meanwhile, drought has worsened across much of western Iowa, with the Red Oak and Atlantic region now experiencing severe drought.

KMTV

In order to break the drought, we need approximately 150% of normal rainfall for the rest of the year to break the drought. So, unless we start seeing some very wet months, the drought will likely continue for at least the next few months.

So, is there any relief? We have a chance for storms on Saturday, which could bring some rain as well as the potential for strong/severe storms. After that, we’re looking at dry weather for at least the middle part of next week.