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2023 Precipitation Recap for Our Entire Coverage Area...Including Map, Tables, Extremes, Tri Cities Details, etc. 
(click tabs below narrative for a wealth of 2023 precip data...including totals/extremes for not only the Tri Cities but also for our ENTIRE coverage area)


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

- IN BRIEF:
2022 was a notably-dry year across our 30-county coverage area, with most places falling between 5-12" short of 30-year normal precipitation (typically receiving no more than 55-80% of normal). In many places, it was the overall-driest year since at least 2012 or 2002. The overall-worst dryness focused within northern/western portions of our Nebraska coverage area, with somewhat wetter (BUT still solidly below normal) totals found within much of north central Kansas along with southeast parts of our Nebraska area. 

- MORE DETAILS:
For many official long-term NWS stations, 2022 ranked between a Top-10 and Top-15 driest year on record. For many places, it was also the overall-driest year since at least 2012 or 2002, but in limited spots one has to go back much farther to find a drier year (for example, Hastings had its driest year in 56 years...since 1966!). Not surprisingly, our entire coverage area found itself in a gradually-worsening drought situation as the year wore on. Per the U.S. Drought Monitor, 2022 began with the majority of our coverage area no worse than Abnormally Dry (D0). However, by year's end the vast majority of our area had degraded to a mix of Moderate (D1), Severe (D2) and Extreme (D3) Drought, with the majority of the worst-off D3 concentrated north of Interstate 80 in Nebraska. Based on data from dozens of NWS and CoCoRaHS/NeRAIN observers and also radar-estimated analysis, the very-driest conditions focused primarily within northern/western portions of our Nebraska coverage area. The following counties were particularly dry (greatest concentration of annual totals under 15"): most of Howard, Merrick, Nance...much of western Dawson...much of southwestern Furnas. On the better-off (but still solidly drier-than-normal) side of things, most (not all) of north central Kansas along with southeastern parts of our Nebraska coverage area had the greatest concentration of annual totals of at least 18-23". 

Although the preceding year (2021) was also notably dry the vast majority of the time, 2021 totals were somewhat skewed/"inflated" by a near-record to record-wettest March. However, 2022 DID NOT have any particularly wet months (at least on a widespread basis), with most locations in most months averaging somewhere between modestly drier-than-normal and FAR-drier-than-normal (the overall-driest months versus normal were: January, February, August, October, November). Of all the dry months,  February and August were most noteworthy across the area as a whole. In February, the vast majority of places measured LESS THAN 0.10", matching the driest Feb. on record in places such as Grand Island and Kearney (among many others). Due in part to the incredibly dry February, the entire 2021-22 "meteorological winter" season (Dec. 2021-Feb. 2022) ranked among the Top-5 driest in many places (featuring an incredible lack of snow). In August, most of our coverage area received only between 0.20-1.50" of rain, also placing many spots in Top-5 driest territory. 

Of course, even in a very dry year there are usually at least brief periods/limited zones of decent precipitation. In 2022, these included: 1) May was fairly wet in roughly the southeast 1/4th of our coverage area (many places with 5-7")...2)  July was decently-wet across most (certainly not all) of our area, with most locations tallying between 3-6"...3) September was modestly-wet within much of the southwestern half of our area (many places 2.50-4.50")...4) the year ended with a somewhat-wet December especially within the western half of our Nebraska coverage area (most places between 0.70-1.15"). 

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

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