National Weather Service - Hastings, Courtesy
KEARNEY — Rainfall – and some snowfall – amounts for October have been tallied for central Nebraska and the results show a sharp divide between east-west and north and south.
Most of the National Weather Service – Hastings saw precipitation amounts slightly below normal, under 2.00 inches but pockets above normal were in the north and west of the warning area.
The areas that saw the highest amounts were in the north, a site north of Ord recorded 4.54 inches, Scotia saw 4.43 inches, Ord proper saw 4.19 inches and Greeley saw 4.14 inches.
Areas to the west of Buffalo County saw a mix of 2.00 to 3.00 inches.
The areas with the lowest amounts were the Kansas counties that NWS Hastings oversees. Plainville, Kan., only recorded 0.12 inches, Damar, Kan., 0.24 inches, Stockton, Kan., 0.30 inches and Beloit, Kan., 0.40 inches.
The Tri-Cities Airports official totals from October were as follows:
- Grand Island: 0.77 inches, 39 percent of normal, the 39th direst on record, but wetter than 2020 or 2022
- Hastings: 1.37 inches, 70 percent of normal, 60th driest on record, but wetter than 2019, 2020 or 2022
- Kearney: 1.58 inches, 74 percent of normal, 50th wettest on record, wettest since 2019
For note, normal October precipitation ranges from 1.80 -2.20 inches, generally lower in the west and higher in the east.
The precipitation last month had a mixed impact on the ongoing drought across Nebraska.
With the snow that fell across northern and north-western Nebraska, drought conditions fell around 40 percent. There is still a swath of exceptional drought, D4, conditions that remains across central and eastern Nebraska.
Hall and Adams counties continue to feature a gradient of conditions, from exceptional drought to severe drought. Buffalo County remains split between abnormally dry in the west, moderate drought in the east and a sliver of severe drought in the extreme east.
“Significant precipitation was recorded in North Dakota, northeast Nebraska, and central and southeast Kansas. Some of the precipitation in these regions came as snow and it is anticipated that much of the ensuing melt-off will get moisture into the soils,” the U.S. Drought Monitor stated in their Thursday, Nov. 2 update.
“A full category improvement to the drought intensities was made over northern North Dakota, central and western Nebraska, and southeast Kansas,” the Drought Monitor said.
