For at least some portion of July 2022, 13 of the 24 South Central Nebraska counties were completely-or-partially assigned Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), marking the sixth consecutive month with D2 within the area. Although drought categories saw very little change over the course of the month, fortunately precipitation trends were somewhat more promising in the wake of a notably dry June as roughly 65 percent of the area received at least slightly above normal rainfall (more on this below). Getting into county-based USDM drought category details, July opened with nearly all of Greeley, Howard and Dawson counties assigned D2, along with various portions of 10 other counties: Valley, Nance, Sherman, Merrick, Buffalo, Gosper, Phelps, Kearney, Adams and Furnas. Outside of these worst-off areas, considerable coverage of Moderate Drought (D1) blanketed most other locales along and west of the Highway 14 corridor. On the best-off side of things, only the four eastern-most local counties along the Highway 81 corridor were completely void of official drought as July opened, featuring a mix of Abnormally Dry (D0) and no categories whatsoever. As the month wore on, the occurrence of semi-regular rain events (but not overly-abundant amounts in most places) kept drought categories fairly unchanged, but if anything brought slight improvement to limited areas. Most notably: 1) D2 improved to D1 across all of Greeley County (and parts of neighboring counties)...2) D1 improved to D0 across much of especially Webster and Nuckolls counties.
Focusing on July 2022 rainfall data, as mentioned roughly 65 percent of the 24-county area received at least slightly above normal amounts (meaning generally more than 3.60), and roughly 85 percent places measured totals no worse than 1 under their monthly normal. More specifically, the majority of South Central Nebraska tallied somewhere between 2-6. Of the roughly 35 percent of the area that saw below normal rain, it was most heavily concentrated within portions of Nance, Polk and northeastern Merrick counties. Meanwhile, the wettest locations primarily focused both along the Kansas border (primarily within Franklin, Webster, Nuckolls, Thayer counties) and also well to the north within mainly northern portions of Valley and Greeley counties. Per several dozen NWS/CoCoRaHS observers, a few of the very driest July totals included merely 0.71 seven miles north of Osceola, 1.16 three miles west-southwest of Genoa and 1.45 two miles north of Palmer. On the wetter end of the measuring stick, a few of the highest tallies featured: 8.72 in Superior, 7.49 in Hubbell and 7.30 nine miles northwest of Ord.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drought in GREELEY, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUL-22 00:00:00 to 04-JUL-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor

Drought in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 01-JUL-22 00:00:00 to 11-JUL-22 23:59:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Drought Monitor