Welcome rainfall is expected for the back half of this week through the upcoming weekend. Some in the KVOE listening area need the rainfall a lot more than others.
Residents in northwest Lyon County, the northern quarter of Chase County, just about all of Morris County and the western half of Wabaunsee County are now in exceptional drought — the worst on the US Drought Monitor scale. This week, KVOE News looks at the drought’s impact on the region. State climatologist Mary Knapp compared the current drought to two others this decade, one from 2010 to 2011 and a second one from 2012 to 2013. She says the moisture flow is more spotty this time as opposed to the other two droughts, where moisture dried up across most of Kansas.
Unlike the prior two droughts, water temperatures in the Central Pacific aren’t playing too much into the current drought. In both droughts earlier this decade, La Nina, or a cooling of the surface waters, was a major player.
Knapp says the second drought started after a decent fall for moisture, whereas the current drought started last summer and hasn’t abated. Things may be changing for the last part of July, including the last half of this week through next week.
Knapp says an inch of rain would help — but not a lot.
Any rain this week, though, is coming too late for some producers, who have been cutting corn or moving cattle — and suffering financial losses — as the drought intensifies.
This week, KVOE News will look at the plight of ag producers in northern Lyon County. We’ll also see how the combination of drought, depressed prices and tariffs has impacted the ag economy in our back yard.
