Much of Kansas is dry or in drought

Drought has returned to much of Kansas, thanks to a dry winter.

Nearly 75 percent of the Sunflower State was experiencing some degree of drought as March drew to a close, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data released this week. That compares with barely 2 percent just three months ago.

“It has been dry,” said Larry Ruthi, meteorologist in charge of the Dodge City branch of the National Weather Service. “I had been hoping that we would have been transitioning into a wetter regime.”

The southwest quarter of the state is in moderate drought, according to the Drought Monitor. About half of the rest of the state is “abnormally dry.” Only the northwest corner, the northern tier of counties and eastern Kansas south of Kansas City are not in some form of drought.

“We’re way down” for precipitation so far this year in southwest Kansas, Ruthi said. Dodge City and Garden City are more than 2 inches below normal since the start of the year.

Garden City has recorded just .22 of an inch so far in 2016.

Wichita has been wetter but is still notably below normal for the year. The city has logged 2.27 inches of rain so far, about half of what the figure should be for the first three months of the year.

“It’s not looking super-promising” for rain in the next week or so, said Vanessa Pearce, a meteorologist with the Wichita branch of the weather service.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center offers hope, however, projecting above normal rainfall for all but the northeastern corner of Kansas over the next three months.

“They showed March was going to be above average for us, and that didn’t work out so well,” Ruthi said.

Ruthi said he was nevertheless optimistic that rains would be arriving soon. Wheat in the region is already showing signs of stress from the drought, he said, so relief is needed.

“If we can’t get something going this spring, I am very concerned about the summer season for us,” he said.

If current weather patterns don’t change, he said, “it could be a hideous summer.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Much of Kansas is dry or in drought."