Despite a pair of heavy rainfall events in late September, the latest climate information packet from the National Weather Service Wichita office doesn’t show much improvement in the current drought, crop conditions or streamflow.
Overall, the monthly climate packet says September rainfall was mostly below average in the east half of Kansas, even with 2-4 inches of rain across the KVOE listening area as part of separate rain events two weeks ago. As an example, Cottonwood Falls got over 2 inches of rain for the month and was still almost 1.5 inches below normal for September. Year to date, the 19.4 inches of rain recorded at Cottonwood Falls is now more than a foot below normal.
Crop conditions vary, depending on the crop, but corn is 35 percent poor to very poor, while beans are almost 50 percent poor to very poor. Topsoil moisture is now 67 percent short to very short, while subsoil moisture is 75 percent short to very short.
Streamflow remains normal to near normal for much of the KVOE listening area, but it’s below normal for southern Lyon County and most of Coffey and Greenwood counties — and it’s much below normal for central Lyon County, almost all of Chase County and southwest Greenwood County.
The National Weather Service expects drought to persist across northeast Kansas through December, but the rest of the state might see some improvement.
September climate packet courtesy National Weather Service
