Did recent run of hit-and-miss rains help Kansas City’s worsening drought conditions?
Despite a stretch of hit-or-miss showers and thunderstorms this past week, the Kansas City area’s drought conditions remain relatively unchanged, according to new maps released Thursday.
Large portions of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, including the Kansas City area, are facing short and long-term drought impacts, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Just over 88% of the of the National Weather Service’s Kansas City forecast area, which covers much of northern and western Missouri and extreme northeast Kansas, is facing abnormally dry or worse drought conditions, down from about 93% from last week.
Conditions improved in Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas and Platte County in Missouri, which last week were experiencing mostly moderate drought conditions. This week, they are facing mostly abnormally dry conditions.
In Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri, conditions remained virtually unchanged, with moderate to severe drought conditions reported across those two counties.
Overall, about 74% of the Kansas City forecast area is experiencing moderate or worse drought conditions, down from around 82.2% last week. Meanwhile, about 29% of the forecast area is seeing severe or worse drought conditions, up from about 28% last week. The percentage of areas experiencing extreme or worse drought conditions remained the same at around 10.3%.
The Drought Severity and Coverage Index, which converts drought levels to a single value for an area, is 202 for the Kansas City forecast area, down from 213 last week. The index ranges from 0 to 500, with 0 meaning none of the area is abnormally dry or in a drought and 500 meaning all of the area is facing exceptional drought conditions.
So far this year, 15.71 inches of precipitation has fallen at Kansas City International Airport, just shy of 15.79 inches that is normal by this time of year.
At Wheeler Downtown Airport, 10.11 inches of precipitation has fallen, well short of the 15.08 inches that is normal by this time of year.
Other rainfall totals in the area so far this year include:
- Johnson County Executive Airport has had 10.77 inches, compared to a normal of 15.48 inches.
- New Century Air Center has had 14.33 inches, compared to a normal of 15.21 inches.
- Lee’s Summit has had 10.45 inches, compared to a normal of 15.89 inches.
- Smithville Lake has had 9.04 inches, compared to a normal of 15.67 inches.
- St. Joseph has had 11.84 inches, compared to a normal of 13.64 inches.
- Kirksville has had 13.53 inches, compared to a normal of 16.38 inches.
- Sedalia has had 12.03 inches, compared to a normal of 15.31 inches.
- Chillicothe has had 10.92 inches, compared to a normal of 16.46 inches.
The next chance for widespread showers and thunderstorms in the Kansas City area comes on Saturday. These storms are expected to bring much-needed rain to the drought-stricken area, according to the National Weather Service in Kansas City.
Between one to two inches of rain is expected from the weekend storms, with some areas possibly seeing higher rainfall totals, the weather service said.
The extended weather outlook for the Kansas City area indicates that above normal temperatures and near normal rainfall is likely for the seven-day period of June 15 through 21.
This story was originally published June 8, 2023 at 12:45 PM.
