Record Heat for the Intermountain West and Northern Plains; Heavy Rainfall and Severe Weather Threats

Record setting heat is expected over the next several days from the Intermountain West through the northern Plains. Furthermore, fire weather concerns increase with dry and breezy conditions. Meanwhile, heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorm threats for the Ohio/Tennessee Valleys, central Appalachians and Southeast today. The threat shifts to central Gulf Coast and across central Texas this week. Read More >

2018 Precipitation Summary and Monthly Stats For 5 "Key" Sites

2018 as a whole was a wetter-than-normal year, as roughly 99 PERCENT of the 30-county NWS Hastings coverage area observed at least slightly ABOVE NORMAL precipitation. More specifically, most places finished somewhere between 2-6" above normal. That being said, these annual totals were somewhat skewed by an unusually wet December, which ranked among the Top-3 wettest on record in most places. In some ways, this resulted in the year as a whole looking a bit wetter than it otherwise might have seemed through the typical "rainy season" and agricultural growing season.

Compared to 30-year normals, a few of the overall-wettest official NWS stations included: 4WNW Plainville KS (an incredible 14.12" above normal!), Belgrade (11.47" above normal) and Ord (10.46" above normal)! In fact, the Plainville station recorded its 3rd-wettest year on record (out of 114).

Of the very FEW official NWS cooperative observer sites that finished barely drier-than-normal in 2018, they included mainly just a couple of far eastern locations: Geneva (0.47" below normal) and Hebron (0.15" below normal).

As for the official Tri Cities airport sites at Grand Island, Hastings, and Kearney, all three were 3-6" above normal for the year. While Hastings had the highest actual total (31.06"), Kearney was farthest above its annual normal with 31.01" (5.78" above normal).

In summary: 2018 was an overall-wet year, with the vast majority of the NWS Hastings area ending up with between 100-130% of normal annual precipitation.

Please note: You can do your own daily/monthly/annual precipitation analysis (including generating maps) using the NWS AHPS page

2018 Precipitation Map and list of several official totals
(click to enlarge)

2018 Monthly Precipitation/Temperature Stats For: Grand Island/Hastings/Kearney/Ord/Smith Center KS

2018 Monthly Stats for Grand Island and Hastings airports (Hastings snow measured at NWS office)

2018 Monthly Stats for Kearney airport (official NWS coop observer, not the unofficial automated sensor)

2018 Monthly Stats for Ord airport (snowfall data provided by NWS coop observer in town)

2018 Monthly Stats for Smith Center (NWS coop observer)

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Record Heat for the Intermountain West and Northern Plains; Heavy Rainfall and Severe Weather Threats

2018 Precipitation Map (Entire Coverage Area) and Monthly Stats for 5 Specific Sites (G. Island/Hastings/Kearney/Ord/Smith Center)