Drought improvements - maybe more to come

We are getting a look at how widespread rainfall from late April has improved drought conditions for western Kansas, but we still have a VERY long way to go. The map comes out on Thursday mornings, but moisture taken into account for drawing the map cuts off Tuesday morning. 

For comparison, here's how the map looked before the rain last week:

Here's the impact and how it looks as we start May:

Biggest improvements were in the southwest, but other areas have seen the highest level of drought expand. 

Just last May (2022), we had tremendous rain over the eastern two-thirds of the state, and drought wasn't a big concern at the time. Little did we know that La Nina would take over and shut it all off just about a month later. 

Interestingly enough, some of the wettest Mays on record for south central Kansas have occurred in recent years. 

What's ahead?

Timing of rain and storms in the second full week of May (8-13) is very unclear, but the overall weather pattern would suggest at least some chance will exist for much of the week and most of the area. Average rainfall, for just the week itself, would be somewhere around 1-2 inches and the map shown below suggests amounts could be a little above that. We expect to see a series of weaker systems coming in from the west that might set off some more rounds of rain.

The 3rd full week of the month could go dry on us with more of a ridge (or high pressure) building to our west out over the Rockies. 

This is our time of year to get rain. I remain optimistic that we are moving into some better chances for moisture, even if it feels like it is taking its own sweet time. The rapid onset of El Nino gives me hope that steadier rains will show up across the Plains as we make our way into summer. Here's a quick snap shot for June, if you want to look that far out. Some of the biggest drought improvements in the near term might be in western Kansas. 

Thanks for spending a few minutes here.