Spring Rains Crucial to Washing Away Drought Conditions on Great Plains

After a wet winter, most Great Plains farmers are entering this year’s growing season more concerned with commodity prices than water, and ready to consign last year’s drought to the history books. But they also are counting on normal amounts of spring and summer rain for recovery.

Forecasters are unable to predict rain amounts. But coming out of winter, the Dakotas are dealing with flooding after an exceptionally wet winter, while Kansas reports near-normal moisture across most of the state.

“There’s some reason to be optimistic in the high plains,” said Mike Hayes with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Although above-average snowfall was reported throughout the region, it did not provide enough moisture to drown drought worries. Plains states rely on rains from April to September for 75% of their annual precipitation.

Diminished surface water supplies--used for irrigation, power generation and recreation--are the main concern in some areas, especially in the western half of Nebraska.

The only problem area in the region is an abnormally dry swath that extends through western and central Nebraska about 100 miles north and south of the North Platte River. That area also extends into northwest Kansas near the Republican River.

Drought conditions in the same area last year destroyed dry-land crops and pastures, fueled wildfires and forced water rationing in some communities.

Described as one of Nebraska’s worst droughts since recordkeeping started 105 years ago, it cost the state’s economy an estimated $1.15 billion, with more than half, $600 million, at the cost of farmers and ranchers.

Irrigators desperate for water last year drained reservoirs; Nebraska’s largest, Lake McConaughy, was reduced to massive sandbars.

This year there are concerns about the scant snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, which feeds rivers on the plains. There is enough water in reservoirs and rivers in the region to meet demand even with the diminished snow totals this year, but if that is used and the snowpack is not replenished next winter, bigger problems could follow, Hayes said.

Hydropower generation may be one of the most evident concerns. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Paul Johnston said the six Missouri River dams in the Dakotas and Montana are expected to produce only 70% of their normal power output this year.

The major reservoirs along the Missouri River are about 12% below their normal storage amounts, with water levels six to eight feet below normal.

That will likely slow commercial traffic on the Missouri as summer progresses, Johnston said. He said he expects the river to be restricted to minimum service by July 1. At minimum levels, barges cannot be loaded to full capacity, and there is just enough water to accommodate the towboats.

On the Net:

National Drought Mitigation Center Drought Monitor: https://enso.unl.edu/monitor

Western Regional Climate Center: https://www.wrcc.dri.edu

U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov