Every Thursday, UNL releases its weekly drought monitor. Though it releases on Thursday, the data only goes up through 8 am Tuesday. If you are interested in the process & more details about the drought monitor, check out this blog here.
Due to our somewhat dry spring, each update of the drought monitor has been bad news for Nebraska and Iowa. A moderate drought (level 2/5) has expanded eastward to encompass much of eastern Nebraska, the Omaha metro area, and parts of southwest Iowa. The severe drought (3/5) is located in the York and Norfolk vicinity, while the extreme drought (4/5) is situated just west of Norfolk. While not as bad as recent years (2023 had the highest drought levels up to Omaha), the persistent drought remains.
Yet, this week brought some good news, the drought held back and even improved in some spots! In particular, spots in eastern Nebraska saw some improvements. The best location was west of Fremont, where storms from Saturday removed part of the drought! For everyone else, there has not been much change.
Now, you might be thinking, didnt we get a lot of rain earlier this week? You would be correct, many neighborhoods picked up around 1" of beneficial rain earlier this week! However, most of that fell on Tuesday, after the deadline for this weeks drought update. So, we will see the rain this week reflected in next week's drought monitor, so stay tuned for that!
