National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heat Continues for the East and South-Central U.S.; Strong to Severe Storms Across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast

The extremely dangerous heat wave continues across the East Coast and much of the South-Central U.S. today. Record high temperatures are expected for some areas especially across the Mid-Atlantic where extreme heat risk conditions reside. There is a Slight Risk (level 2 of 5) of severe thunderstorms today for the northern Mid-Atlantic into portions of southern New England. Read More >

2019 Precipitation Summary and Monthly Details for 5 "Key" Sites:
(see tabs below for site-specific details)


2019 Precipitation Map and list of several official totals
(click to enlarge)

2019 went down in the books as a NOTABLY WET year for our 30-county coverage area as a whole, but particularly within the northeast half (see map at right). Nearly ALL of our area measured above normal annual precipitation, with the very-highest totals focused primarily within Valley/Sherman/Howard/Hall/Thayer counties (and portions of neighboring counties). On the other hand, some of the overall-lowest amounts (but still at least slightly above normal for the most part) concentrated within southwestern local counties such as Furnas/Phillips/Smith. In addition to the historical flooding that inundated many areas in March, other notable rounds of newsworthy rain/flooding occurred in July (including the city of Kearney) and in August (including in and especially north of Grand Island). 

Within many of the overall-wettest counties, many places finished an incredible
10-20" ABOVE normal for the year. In fact, several long-standing NWS cooperative observers recorded one of their Top-5 wettest years on record. Just to list some:
- Kearney airport (tied 2nd-wettest out of 126)
- Grand Island automated airport sensor (3rd-wettest out of 125)
- St. Paul (WETTEST out of 124...19.15" above normal!)
- Ravenna (WETTEST out of 127...17.19" above normal!)
- Arcadia 2W (WETTEST out of 124)
- Hebron (tied 4th-wettest out of 127)
- York 3N (3rd-wettest out of 127)
- Loup City (5th-wettest out of 124)
- Greeley (4th-wettest out of 125)

Of the very FEW official NWS cooperative observer sites that finished barely wetter-than-normal in 2019, one of these was Smith Center KS (only 0.53" above normal).

In summary: 2019 was an overall very-wet year for our area as a whole, and in several northern/eastern counties it was a record to near-record wet year! 

Please note:
- You can look up temperature/precipitation data for ALL official NWS stations in our area by using NOWData
- You can do your own daily/monthly/annual precipitation analysis (including generating maps) using the NWS AHPS page


2019 Nebraska Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 45 sites)   data for most recent month is usually filled out by the 20th
2019 Kansas Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 17 sites)      data for most recent month is usually filled out by the 20th

2018 Nebraska Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 45 sites)
2018 Kansas Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 17 sites)

Archived Precipitation Tables And Monthly Climate Stories

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