2023 Precipitation Recap for Our Entire Coverage Area...Including Map, Tables, Extremes, Tri Cities Details

2023 Precipitation Map and list of several official totals/extremes (click to enlarge)

- BRIEF OVERVIEW OF 2023 PRECIPITATION:
Although NOT as severely dry as 2022, 2023 was another overall-drier-than-normal year across most of our 30-county coverage area. Roughly 75% of the area received at least slightly below normal precipitation, with counties east of Highway 281 the overall-driest. Meanwhile, of the roughly one-fourth of the area that received slightly above normal precipitation, it was almost entirely concentrated within counties west of Highway 281. Digging a bit deeper into the numbers, the majority of the 30-county area tallied between 20-27" of precipitation, or generally 75-100% of the 30-year normal. Put another way, most places received somewhere between 8" below normal annual precipitation and 1" above normal annual precipitation. 

- MORE DETAILS (including drought trends):
Thankfully, it was not as severely-dry in 2023 as it was during 2022 (which was a Top 10 to 15 driest year on record for much of our area). That being said, around 75% of our area still registered at least slightly below normal for the year. Based on data from dozens of NWS and CoCoRaHS/NeRAIN observers and also radar-estimated analysis, some places especially within the following central/eastern local counties fell at least 6" short of normal: Hall, Hamilton, York, Polk, Fillmore, Thayer, Mitchell. On the flip side, roughly 25% of our area received at least slightly above normal precipitation...most heavily concentrated within portions of counties west of the Highway 281 corridor including: Harlan, Gosper, Valley, Sherman, western Buffalo and northern Phillips. For our 30-county area as a whole (and there were certainly various exceptions), a few of the overall-driest months versus normal were: March, April, May and October. In contrast, the overall-wettest months versus normal were: January, February, June and December. NOTE: please refer to associated graphic above for a list of a few of the very driest/wettest official 2023 precipitation totals within our coverage area, along with Nebraska Tri Cities details.  

Not surprisingly given that below normal precipitation prevailed most of the year in most places, drought of varying intensity was a big story during 2023. Per weekly issuances of the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), 2023 opened with 95% of our coverage area blanketed by Moderate Drought (D1) to Extreme Drought (D3). Halfway through the year, the June 27th USDM painted a worsening situation, with our ENTIRE 30-county area covered by Moderate (D1) to Exceptional Drought (D4), including 42% of the area in D3-D4 (most heavily concentrated east of Highway 281 in Nebraska). Fortunately, the latter half of 2023 brought at least some improvement, as the Dec. 26th USDM only had 62% of our area under D1-D4, and the coverage of worst-off D3-D4 had slimmed to 28% (still most concentrated east of Highway 281 in Nebraska). On a positive note at year's end: 16% of our area was indicated to be void of all drought categories whatsoever (even Abnormally Dry D0), including large parts of Furnas, Gosper, Phelps, Harlan and Valley counties. 

Highlighting just a few "quirky"/notable precipitation trends within our area during 2023:
- 1: Our official NWS observer near York (York 3N) totaled merely 6.97" through the first half of the year (Jan-June)...an incredible 8.40" below normal and marking the driest first half of a year since 1970! However, July then brought an incredible change in fortune, with 7.31" of rainfall ranking as the 9th-wettest July on record out of 130 years. Unfortunately, the annual total at York 3N still ended up 8.08" below normal. 
- 2: In our extreme southern coverage area, our official NWS observer near Plainville KS (Plainville 4WNW) endured two INCREDIBLY-DRY, two-month stretches during the year. First, March-April combined yielded merely 0.36", marking THE DRIEST March+April on record out of 115 years! Then in the fall, September-October combined totaled just 0.75", marking the 2nd-driest Sept.+Oct. on record!. Fortunately, the other eight months of 2023 featured near-to-above normal precipitation, but Plainville 4WNW still ended up 5.02" below normal for the year. 

HANDY TIPS:
- You can look up official daily/monthly/annual temp/precip data for ALL NWS cooperative observer and airport stations in our area with NOWData
- You can find maps of daily/weekly/monthly etc. precipitation on a page maintained by NWS Hastings at: www.weather.gov/gid/Precipitation
- You can do your own daily/monthly/annual precipitation analysis (including generating maps) using the NWS AHPS page