A bird sits on a post by a field pond near Steve and Kathy Mailand’s north of Grant. Besides wetlands filling up, grasses and crops are also greening up after several days of steady rain last week.
Photo by Becky Uehling
Glorious moisture!
By Becky Uehling
Grant Tribune-Sentinel
Country Supply in Grant had a run on an item last week that they haven’t sold in a while—rain gauges.
“We have sold quite a few of them,” said Shop Clerk Kathy Schroder. “I think we only have a few left.”
With the area in a drought, Southwest Nebraska residents haven’t had much of a need for rain gauges for several years. Pleasantly, this changed last week with the area receiving between 4-6 inches of rain over a seven day period. In comparison, for all of 2022 Perkins County only received an average of 7 inches of rain total, according to the Nebraska Weather Services (NWS) out of North Platte.
Steady Rain
A slow-moving, upper-level system, paired with a very moist atmosphere, was the reason behind the steady rains, according to the NWS.
“In fact, at times, the total column moisture obtained from our weather balloon was near an all-time record for this time of year,” said NWS Meteorologist John Stoppkotte. “This allowed not only a dynamic, slow moving system to provide the lift needed to generate precipitation, but also promoted a very efficient rainfall process.”
The rains were much needed for the region. According to the latest drought monitor from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which was current before last week’s rain event, 80.86% of the state remains in severe drought, while 48.12% remains in exceptional drought, including the majority of Perkins County. Updated drought information from the UNL was not available as of press time on Tuesday.