Drought exploded in the past week, especially in Southeast Nebraska, as a long dry streak continues.
According to the latest Drought Monitor released Thursday by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, more than 73% of the state is now in at least a moderate drought, up from less than 50% last week. The amount of area in severe drought more than doubled, from 14% to nearly 33%.
Much of the worsening of the drought conditions occurred in Southeast Nebraska, where several counties went from virtually no severe drought conditions to total or near-total severe drought in a week's time.
Pawnee and Lancaster counties both went from less than 5% severe drought to 100% severe drought, while Gage, Saline and Thayer counties all went from less than 40% to 100% severe drought.
Johnson County had no severe drought last week and is now at 90%, while Seward County went from 0% to 75%.
The culprit, of course, is a lack of precipitation.
"There's been absolutely no rain to speak of," said Clint Aegerter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Valley.
Lincoln has seen only 0.2 inches of rain since the start of September and only 1.7 since the beginning of August. Average rainfall for that period of time is nearly 7 inches. That has taken what was a fairly healthy surplus at the end of July and turned it into what is currently a 2.5-inch deficit.
But it's not just Lincoln. Across Nebraska, cities and towns have seen little rain over the past couple of months.
Omaha, Norfolk and Sidney all saw their driest Septembers ever. Kearney saw its second-driest September, Hastings and Valentine both had their third-driest, Chadron had its fourth-driest and Grand Island had its fifth-driest.
Of the 587 stations reporting to the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network, more than 400 have recorded less than 0.5 inches of rain since the beginning of September, while only four recorded 2 inches or more.
The Nebraska State Climate Office said in its weekly weather roundup that "only isolated locations were not in the bottom 10th percentile" for driest Septembers.
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Thanks to those conditions, drought has expanded everywhere in the state over the past week with the exception of small parts of southwest Nebraska and the southern Panhandle.
The lack of precipitation is not the only factor driving drought development, though. Heat also has been a culprit.
Thursday was the ninth day in a row in Lincoln with an above-average temperature and the 28th out of the past 31. On 17 of those days, the high temperature has been at least 10 degrees above average.
The combination of heat and lack of rain has caused people to use more water. September was the most water-intensive month of the year for both the Lincoln Water System and Lancaster Rural Water District No. 1.
That also has taken a toll on soil moisture, which is at 5% or less over most areas of the state, according to the State Climate Office.
The heat and dryness, combined with occasionally high winds, has greatly increased the danger of grass fires. A number of fire departments have suspended burn permits, including most of the rural fire districts in Lancaster County. A series of grass fires this past weekend in Gage County burned more than 1,000 acres.
On Friday, the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District announced a ban on campfires and any other types of fires at wildlife management areas that it controls.
Cooler weather is on the way, with highs only in the 60s forecast for Sunday-Tuesday and nighttime lows that could drop into the mid-30s.
Aegerter said the cooler weather "doesn't really help a whole lot" without accompanying rain.
"We definitely need some precipitation, too, to help," he said.
That doesn't look likely in the short term, with no rain in the forecast for the Lincoln area for at least the next week.
However, longer-term prospects are a bit better. The National Weather Service's 8-14-day forecast shows an above-average chance of rain for most of the state.
Aegerter said getting some decent precipitation in the next month or two before the ground becomes permanently frozen is important to help soil moisture.
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Flames burn corn stubble on the west edge of a fire Saturday in a field northwest of the intersection of South 36th Road and East Belvidere Drive a few miles southeast of Beatrice.