According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, April 2014 marked the 23rd-consecutive month during which drought of at least category D2 Severe intensity plagued some or most of this six-county North Central Kansas area, continuing one of the most notable droughts in decades. However, on the heels of an extremely dry March, conditions were not as dire during April. According to reports from nearly 20 NWS cooperative observers, and also taking into account radar-derived precipitation estimates, roughly half of the local area observed at least slightly above normal April precipitation (based on long-term April normals of roughly 2.34). Furthermore, the vast majority of locations received at least 1.50 for the month and thus were not bone dry. In general, the northwest half of the area (roughly northwest of a Plainville-Burr Oak line), and especially Phillips County benefited from the greatest coverage of above normal monthly precipitation. The majority of April precipitation fell during the latter one-third of the month, and stemmed the tide of what had been a notably-dry late fall, winter and early spring. For example, at Smith Center the roughly 5.5 month stretch from Nov. 7, 2013-April 22, 2014 went down as the sixth-driest on record (2.15) between those particular dates out of 105 years of records.
Despite April precipitation generally hovering within an inch either side of normal, the lingering influence of several prior months of predominantly dry conditions prompted only limited one-category improvement or degradation in drought classification according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor. Most notably, the southern fringes of Rooks and Osborne counties slipped into category D3 Extreme drought, marking the first time since Sep. 2013 that any portion of the local area was categorized D3. On a more positive note, most of Phillips along with northwestern Smith counties improved to D1 Moderate drought. Meanwhile, the majority of the area stood firmly in D2 Severe drought over the course of the month. As for April precipitation extremes per NWS cooperative observers, a few of the highest totals featured 3.60 two miles southwest of Alton, 3.25 at Phillipsburg and 3.21 at Logan. On the opposite side of the ledger, a few of the lowest April totals originated from Covert rural station (1.49���), Hunter (1.68���) and Jewell (1.76���). According to the USDA Kansas Crop Progress and Condition Report for the week ending April 27th, topsoil moisture supplies in the north central district improved slightly since late-March, as the short to very short categories decreased from 73% to 68%. However, subsoil moisture supplies remained worse-off and even degraded very slightly, increasing from 77% to 83% short to very short and rating only 17% adequate.

Drought in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 01-APR-14 00:00:00 to 30-APR-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 01-APR-14 00:00:00 to 30-APR-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-APR-14 00:00:00 to 30-APR-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in PHILLIPS, KANSAS
From 01-APR-14 00:00:00 to 30-APR-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 01-APR-14 00:00:00 to 30-APR-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in SMITH, KANSAS
From 01-APR-14 00:00:00 to 30-APR-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor