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Drought Conditions in the High Plains Region - Update October 23

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Source/Author: Joseph Brum - High Plains Regional Climate Center 10/25/12

Year-to-date total precipitation percent of normal for the High Plains Region

Image © High Plains Regional Climate Center

U.S. Drought Monitor-October 23, 2012

Image © National Drought Mitigation Center

This week’s drought conditions are essentially identical to last week’s conditions in the High Plains Region. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, there was a slight improvement of a little more than 0.5% in total area of moderate drought (D1) conditions or worse.  The area D1 type conditions in the High Plains Region now totals 98.93% and the improvements occurred in north central North Dakota. Also areas of severe drought (D2) in North Dakota and South Dakota were upgraded one category, decreasing the total area of D2 for the Region to 84.90%. The entire area of extreme drought (D3) that occupied in the eastern portion of North Dakota has been upgraded one category to D2 this week. The drought conditions in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska did not change at all from last week to this week. To learn more about the U.S. Drought Monitor, please see: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu

This week Wyoming’s drought conditions changed slightly. There was a minor improvement in the northwestern portion of the state that saw some area upgrade from D1 conditions to abnormally dry (D0) conditions. Not all areas of Wyoming saw improvements though; there was a slight increase in area of D3 in the north central part of the state. The area of D3 increased about 2.5%, to now total 59.77% of the state. Also the area of D4 in the eastern portion of Wyoming still remains in place and totals 7.61% of the state. Check out the table below for the drought conditions over the past month for Wyoming. For more on the drought situation in Wyoming check out this site:  http://www.uwyo.edu/ces/wyo-disaster/drought/index.html

To view more statistics of the High Plains Region and each state check out the Tabular Statistics here: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_highplains.htm

 

                 Drought Condition (Percent Area): Wyoming

 Date

 None

 D0-D4

 D1-D4

 D2-D4

 D3-D4

  D-4
 10/23/2012   
 0.00   
 100.00   
 97.77 
 86.40 
 59.77   

 7.61   

 10/16/2012
  0.00
  100.00
  97.92  86.49  57.36  7.61
 10/09/2012
  0.00  100.00  97.96

 86.52

  57.36  7.61
 10/02/2012
  0.00  100.00  98.01  86.55  57.93  7.64
 09/25/2012
  0.00  100.00  98.01  87.30  58.34  2.72
 09/18/2012
  0.00  100.00  97.92  87.30  58.35  2.70

 

 

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