Nebraska, portions of Great Plains continue to experience ‘significant drought conditions’

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) -Some rain can be expected in parts the state later this week, but according to one of the 10 weekly contributors to the U.S. Drought Monitor, it won’t be enough to completely turn around the effects of current dry conditions in the region.

Curtis Riganti is a climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s National Drought Mitigation Center and helps analyze data sets ranging from precipitation amount to vegetation health to publish the drought map each Thursday. He says unusually warm and windy conditions have led to significant drought conditions across the central and southern Great Plains.

The latest map from March 26 shows that majority of Nebraska is currently in at least severe drought, which Riganti says has helped create conditions perfect for stoking recent central Nebraska fires.

“As we’ve gone in to early spring now we’ve seen a continuation of those warm, windy conditions and dry weather for the most part,” he said. “That’s been particularly bad over the past few weeks. That’s unfortunately led to very favorable conditions for wildfire growth, which we’ve seen.”

Riganti added that a lack of snow in the Rocky Mountains is also contributing to drought conditions, and could result in less water running downstream into Nebraska this spring and summer.

As a reminder, you can always help out with the U.S. drought monitor by reporting conditions to their online database at go.unl.edu/cmor

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