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 portion of this 24-county South Central Nebraska area, continuing one of the most notable droughts in decades. However, some positive news occurred during April, as according to reports from nearly 50 NWS cooperative observers, and also taking into account radar-derived precipitation estimates, roughly 60% of the 24-county area observed at least slightly above normal April precipitation, and over 70% of the area ended up within 1��� either side of normal April precipitation. In other words, even for the roughly 40% of the area that received below normal precipitation, most of these places received at least 1.50��� for the month and thus were not ���bone dry���. The majority of this precipitation fell during the latter one-third of the month, and stemmed the tide of what had been a concerningly-dry late fall, winter and early spring. In fact, for places such as Grand Island and Hastings, the roughly 5.5 month stretch from Nov. 6, 2013-April 22, 2014 went down as the 4th-driest on record in Grand Island (1.98���) and 7th-driest in Hastings (2.42���) between those particular dates out of 118 years of records. At several places, including Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney, April ended a streak of 5-consecutive months of at least slightly below normal precipitation. However, not everybody in the 24-county area benefited from sufficient April precipitation, as locations such as Ord airport recorded a 7th-consecutive month of below normal totals.
Despite the prevailing near-normal to slightly above normal April precipitation, 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. The majority of South Central Nebraska either remained in, or degraded to category D1 Moderate drought over the course of the month, including several counties east of Highway 281 which had previously been in category D0 Abnormally Dry (considered to be one category better than ���true��� drought). On the worst-off side of things, D2 Severe drought remained firmly in place at month's end within several western counties, including large portions of Furnas, Gosper, Dawson and Valley counties, along with small slivers of Sherman and Phelps counties. However, southern Harlan County shook free of D2 drought late in the month. On the most-positive note of all during April, locations generally 15 miles either side of a line extending from near Wilcox-Gibbon-Dannebrog improved to D0 Abnormally Dry by month's end, thanks in large part to a narrow swath of 2-4 of rain that fell on the 23rd-24th. This late-month improvement to D0 Abnormally Dry included large portions of several counties including: Kearney, Phelps, Buffalo, Hall and Howard. As for April precipitation extremes within South Central Nebraska per NWS cooperative observers and NeRAIN observers, a few of the highest totals featured 5.89 two miles west of Doniphan, 5.29 at Bradshaw, 5.21 at Polk and 4.92 at Wilcox. On the opposite side of the ledger, a few of the lowest April totals originated from Arcadia (0.83���), Ord airport (1.26���), Hubbell (1.50���) and Canaday Steam Plant located six miles south-southeast of Lexington (1.76). According to the USDA Nebraska Crop Progress and Condition Report for the week ending April 27th, state-averaged topsoil moisture supplies improved slightly since late-March, as the short to very short categories decreased from 62% to 53%. However, subsoil moisture supplies degraded very slightly, increasing from 60% to 62% short to very short.

Drought in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
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 SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
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 DAWSON, NEBRASKA
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 GOSPER, NEBRASKA
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 PHELPS, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-14 00:00:00 to 01-APR-14 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
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 FURNAS, NEBRASKA
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