For at least some part of May 2022, at least portions of five of the six North Central Kansas counties were assigned Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), marking the fourth consecutive month with D2 within the area. That being said, for much of the area it was a somewhat encouraging month for drought trends, with prevailing above normal rainfall in most (but not all) places prompting a slight decrease in overall drought intensity over the course of the month. Specifying more county-based categorical detail, May began with at least portions of five counties in D2: Rooks (the entire county), Phillips, Osborne and Mitchell (the remainder of these counties opened the month in Moderate Drought/D1). Meanwhile, Jewell was the only local county to open May in D1-only. Once May got underway, a few much-needed early month rain events quickly started whittling away at drought severity. Already by the USDM update valid May 3rd, D2 was completely removed from Smith County, most of Phillips and parts of Rooks/Osborne (although a sliver of D2 held on in far western Phillips). Thereafter, these categories held pretty firm through most of the remainder of the month, but another round of appreciable late-month rains prompted even more improvement. This time around, D2 was completely removed from Rooks, Osborne and Mitchell counties, and parts of Mitchell, Jewell and Osborne counties improved to D0 (Abnormally Dry)...marking the first appearance of D0 in North Central Kansas since a brief/localized stint in late-March.
Turning to May 2022 precipitation data, the best news of all was that roughly 80 percent of the six county area registered at least slightly above normal, and most of the limited locations that fell short still received at least 75 percent of normal (a big improvement versus April 2022 trends). The majority of North Central Kansas tallied modestly above normal monthly amounts between 4-6 inches. On the wettest side of things, parts of primarily Mitchell County tallied at least 6-8. On the other end of the rain gauge, the only part of the area that fell somewhat significantly short of normal was a portion of southwestern Rooks County, where radar estimation/AHPS analysis suggested only 2-3 fell (no ground-truth gauge readings). Per a few dozen NWS/CoCoRaHS observers, a few of the very-wettest May totals featured 8.90 ten miles south-southwest of Beloit and 7.44 at Glen Elder. In contrast, the overall-driest sums originated from Rooks/Phillips counties, including 3.13 at Webster Dam and 3.28 in Plainville.

Drought in SMITH, KANSAS
From 01-MAY-22 00:00:00 to 03-MAY-22 00:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in PHILLIPS, KANSAS
From 01-MAY-22 00:00:00 to 31-MAY-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

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

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

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