For at least some portion of August 2022, at least parts of 17 of the 24 South Central Nebraska counties were assigned Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), with sections of three northeastern counties also seeing the introduction of Extreme Drought (D3) late in the month. This marked the seventh consecutive month with D2 plaguing parts of South Central Nebraska and also marked the return of limited D3 following a two month reprieve (since mid-June). Unfortunately, following what had just been somewhat encouraging precipitation trends in July (during which roughly two-thirds of the area measured above normal rainfall), things took a major turn for the worse in August, with several long-time NWS stations enduring one of their Top-5 driest Augusts on record (more on this below). Focusing on county-specific USDM drought category details, August opened with at least portions of 10 counties assigned D2: Dawson, Buffalo, Howard, Nance, Merrick, Gosper, Phelps, Kearney, Adams and Furnas. Outside of these worst-off areas, considerable coverage of Moderate Drought (D1) existed mainly west of a Genoa-Clay Center-Franklin line. Meanwhile, the overall-best conditions resided within several far eastern and southeastern local counties, featuring a varied mix of Abnormally Dry (D0) and no drought categories whatsoever...with particularly most of York, Fillmore and Thayer counties indicated as drought-free. Through most of the month, drought categories actually remained quite stable despite the worsening dryness. However, the very last USDM issuance of the month (valid on the 30th) featured an inevitable and widespread one-category degradation across much of the area. The net result was a significant expansion of especially D2 and D1, with D2 now prevailing within most counties from the Tri Cities northward and westward. In addition to the 10 aforementioned counties that started the month at least partially-assigned D2, the late-month degradation brought D2 into parts of at least seven more: Valley, Greeley, Sherman, Polk, Hall, Harlan and Franklin. In addition, a narrow stripe of D3 was introduced to portions of Nance, Howard and Merrick counties, where long-term precipitation deficits were most dire. Even in the better off far eastern counties along the Highway 81 corridor, at least D0 was in place by month's end.
Turning to August 2022 rainfall details, there was very little good news to be found. The majority of South Central Nebraska only received somewhere between 0.25-1.50. For much of the area it was a Top-5 driest August, including at the official Tri Cities airport stations, where Kearney had its outright-driest August (0.13), Grand Island its 2nd-driest (0.45) and Hastings its 5th-driest (0.46). In addition to Kearney, a few other official NWS stations that set new August records for dryness included Holdrege (0.22), Ord (0.20) Ravenna (0.11) and Canaday Steam Plant (six miles south-southeast of Lexington...0.23). From a broader perspective across the entire 24-county area, roughly 99 percent of it received at least slightly below normal precipitation, around 95% saw less than half of normal (generally less than 1.66), roughly 70% of locations received less than one-fourth of normal (generally less than 0.83) and around half of the area tallied LESS THAN ONE-SIXTH of normal (generally less than 0.55)! The primary tiny fraction of the area that observed slightly above normal precipitation was east-central York County, where a pair of NeRAIN observers in the Waco area reported 3.50-4.00. In extreme contrast, some of the very-driest NeRAIN/NWS station totals featured a paltry 0.08 in Cairo, the aforementioned 0.11 at Ravenna, 0.13 in Spalding (along with Kearney airport) and 0.15 in Dannebrog.

Drought in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 30-AUG-22 00:00:00 to 31-AUG-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in GREELEY, NEBRASKA
From 30-AUG-22 00:00:00 to 31-AUG-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 30-AUG-22 00:00:00 to 31-AUG-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HALL, NEBRASKA
From 30-AUG-22 00:00:00 to 31-AUG-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in POLK, NEBRASKA
From 30-AUG-22 00:00:00 to 31-AUG-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 30-AUG-22 00:00:00 to 31-AUG-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 30-AUG-22 00:00:00 to 31-AUG-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor