For at least some portion of June 2022, 17 of the 24 South Central Nebraska counties were completely-or-partially assigned either Severe (D2) or Extreme Drought (D3) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), marking the fifth consecutive month with D2 within the area and the fourth straight month with (at least limited) D3. Unfortunately, following somewhat encouraging precipitation trends during May, things again took a downturn during June, with the vast majority of the local area registering below normal rainfall (more on this below). Getting into county-based USDM drought category details, June opened with roughly the southwestern one-third of Furnas County assigned D3, while at least portions of 16 other counties featured D2: Valley, Greeley, Nance, Sherman, Howard, Merrick, Dawson, Buffalo, Hall, Hamilton, Gosper, Phelps, Kearney, Adams, Clay and Harlan. Outside of these worst-off D3/D2 areas, portions of each of the remaining six far eastern/southern local counties (along the Highway 81 and Highway 136 corridors) were either completely-or-partially assigned Moderate Drought (D1), with Thayer County featuring the overall best conditions with mostly D0 (Abnormally Dry). As June went along, there were not sweeping changes in categories, although a few rain events mainly during the first half of the month: 1) prompted the removal of D3 from western Furnas County (although D2 remained)...2) resulted in a decrease in the coverage of D2 within several counties mainly along/north of Interstate 80...3) brought the overall-greatest improvement to Polk/York counties, with most of these counties actually void of all drought categories by late-month.
Focusing on June 2022 rainfall data, nearly 90 percent of the 24-county area received below normal totals (generally less than 4 inches), with roughly 40% of the area measuring less than half of the June normal (generally less than 2). The majority of South Central Nebraska tallied somewhere between 1.25-4.00. The overall-driest areas were scattered across various counties, but were most pronounced within portions of: Valley, Greeley, Howard, Merrick, Harlan and Franklin. Of the roughly 10% of the area that received above normal rainfall, it was primarily concentrated within decent chunks of Polk, York and Hamilton counties, along with small sections of Buffalo and Hall counties. Per several dozen NWS/CoCoRaHS observers, a few of the very driest June totals included merely 0.67 nine miles northwest of Ord, 0.72 in St. Paul and 0.80 in Greeley. In contrast, a few of the localized, solidly above-normal monthly tallies featured: 6.57 in Aurora, 5.21 in Gibbon and 5.04 on the east side of York.

Drought in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in GREELEY, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HOWARD, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in NANCE, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in MERRICK, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HALL, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 13-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 13-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in BUFFALO, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in GOSPER, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in PHELPS, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in KEARNEY, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 30-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in HAMILTON, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 13-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUN-22 00:00:00 to 13-JUN-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor