According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, February 2014 marked the 21st consecutive month during which drought of at least category D2 Severe intensity plagued some portion of this 24-county South Central Nebraska area, prolonging one of the most notable droughts in decades. For most of the area, February marked the third or fourth consecutive month of below normal precipitation. According to reports from nearly 50 NWS cooperative observers, roughly 75 percent of South Central Nebraska measured at least slightly below normal February precipitation, and roughly 20% of the area (mainly north of Interstate 80) totaled less than half of normal February precipitation, based on long-term February normals generally ranging between 0.50 and 0.75. Despite the notably dry meteorological winter across most of the area, the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor continued to reflect generally minor changes in drought classification,  thus maintaining a west (worse) to east (better) disparity. Over the course of February, there was actually one small area of ���improvement���, as portions of central Harlan, southern Franklin and far southwestern Webster counties changed from category D2 Severe Drought to D1 Moderate Drought. However, farther north, a degradation from D0 Abnormally Dry (considered to be one category better than ���true��� drought) to D1 Moderate Drought overtook much of Greeley, northern Nance and far northern Howard counties. Meanwhile, D2 Severe Drought continued to plague all or part of a few southwestern counties at month's end, namely Furnas, Gosper, southern Dawson and southern Harlan. Just to the east and northeast of the D2 area, a corridor of D1 Moderate Drought covered all or most of several counties, including Valley, Sherman, Greeley, Phelps, Kearney, Franklin and Webster. Finally, several counties along and especially east of the Highway 281 corridor remained in D0 Abnormally Dry classification throughout February (including all of Hall, Adams, Hamilton, York and Thayer counties, among others).
The majority (roughly two-thirds) of cooperative observer stations within South Central Nebraska reported February precipitation totals somewhere between 0.30-0.80���, although there was an evident northeast (drier, less snow) to southwest (wetter, snowier) disparity, mainly because the month���s two main snow events primarily targeted locations south of Highway 6. As for monthly extremes, a few of the lowest amounts included 0.12��� at Greeley, 0.13��� at Geneva and 0.19��� at both Belgrade and Ord airport. On the comparably ���wetter��� side of the spectrum were southern locations such as Wilsonville (1.05���), two miles northeast of Upland (1.03���), Edison (0.98) and four miles southwest of Blue Hill (0.98). Turning to the longer-term precipitation picture for all of meteorological winter (December-February), the 2013-2014 season was notably dry, especially within the northern three-fourths of South Central Nebraska. At Greeley, the paltry seasonal total of 0.22��� resulted in the 2nd-driest winter on record out of the 72 that have complete data. In the Tri-Cities, Grand Island notched the 9th-driest winter on record out of 119 seasons, while Hastings had the 11th-driest winter out of the 92 seasons with complete data. According to the USDA Nebraska Crop Progress and Condition Report at the end of February, state-averaged topsoil moisture supplies remained relatively unchanged since late-January, checking in 57% short to very short and only 43% adequate. Subsoil moisture supplies also remained similar, rating 55% short to very short and 45% adequate.

Drought in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 01-FEB-14 00:00:00 to 28-FEB-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in GOSPER, NEBRASKA
From 01-FEB-14 00:00:00 to 28-FEB-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in PHELPS, NEBRASKA
From 01-FEB-14 00:00:00 to 28-FEB-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 01-FEB-14 00:00:00 to 28-FEB-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 01-FEB-14 00:00:00 to 28-FEB-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 01-FEB-14 00:00:00 to 28-FEB-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in WEBSTER, NEBRASKA
From 01-FEB-14 00:00:00 to 28-FEB-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor