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HARTINGTON – Part of Cedar County is now in the extreme drought category, according to the most recent Drought Monitor map released last week.
It's not clear yet if rains here Monday and Tuesday will push the county back to severe drought status.
The most recent U.S. Drought Monitor map, published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, shows 94 percent of the state in drought or near-drought.
This week's map shows slight improvement over last week, but there are still some areas of extreme drought in northeast and northwest Nebraska.
The top half of Cedar County (from Coleridge north to the Missouri River) is in the extreme drought category. The rest of the county is in severe drought.
Most of the state is in severe drought, but four areas are now in the extreme category. That includes parts of Knox, Cedar, Dixon, Pierce, and Antelope County in northeast Nebraska. A small section of Cherry County is also in extreme drough, as well as parts of Sioux, Dawes, Sheridan and Box Butte counties in extreme northwestern Nebraska.
Cedar County received adequate precipitation during most of the growing season, but the faucet basically shut off in August.
Records from the drought.gov website indicate last month was the 14th driest October ever recorded in Cedar County, as the county recevied 1.31 inches less than normal this year.
According to unofficial rainfall totals from local weather watchers, only .12 inches of precipitation fell here in October.
According to NOAA’s October global climate report, October 2024 was the Earth’s second-warmest October on record.
September was even worse, as it came in as the driest September ever recorded in Cedar County and in the entire state of Nebraska. Unofficial readings show the Hartington area only had .03 inches of precipitation in September. In August, 1.38 inches of precipitaiton was recorded here.
So far, November is looking better, though. After Monday's rain here, the Hartington area has received 1.83 inches of precipitation in November 2024.
