Throughout December 2023, at least portions of all six North Central Kansas counties spent at least part of the month assigned at least Severe Drought (D2) by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), with around 80 percent of the area assigned at least Moderate Drought (D1) throughout the month as a long-term drought situation persisted. December marked the 23rd-consecutive month with at-least-D2 afflicting portions of the local area, and the ninth straight month with at least limited coverage of Extreme Drought (D3). That being said, December actually featured some positive news as essentially the entire area boasted at least slightly above normal precipitation, prompting one-category drought improvement across more than half of the area (this broke a three-month streak of prevailing below normal precipitation across most of North Central Kansas...see below for more specific December precipitation details). Focusing on December county-level drought category specifics, the month opened with the situation as follows: 1) Separate swaths of D3 constituted at least 20% of the six-county area, most prevalent within the majority of Rooks and western Mitchell counties...2) A sizeable buffer area of D2 surrounded the D3 zone, including the majority of Osborne, Jewell and Mitchell counties, with the combined D2+D3 areas representing around 75% of North Central Kansas...3) Limited coverage of D1 (under 10% of the total area) existed across parts of Phillips and Smith counties...4) Best-off Abnormally Dry (D0) continued to rule much of northern Phillips and northwestern Smith counties (but only accounting for around 15% of the local area). During the overall-dry first two weeks of the month, status quo prevailed. However, mid-late December brought two widespread/beneficial precipitation events, the first and most significant one centered on the 14th-15th (almost entirely rain) and the latter one unfolding on the 24th-25th (rain then snow). The first event brought widespread rainfall of 0.70-1.50 to the entire area, prompting one-category improvement for much of the area on the Dec. 19th USDM issuance. As a result, at month's end drought categories consisted of: 1) D3 had been improved to D2 across portions of Smith, Jewell, Osborne and Mitchell counties, but still lingered over the majority of Rooks County (areal coverage of D3 within the six-county area reduced to around 12%)...2) D2 had been improved to D1 across large portions of Osborne and Jewell counties, along with smaller portions of the other four counties (areal coverage of D2+D3 within the area reduced to around 40%)...3) Because of the aforementioned reduction in D2, the coverage of D1 expanded accordingly across parts of all six counties (comprising roughly 40% of the total area)...4) Abnormally Dry (D0) prevailed across much of Phillips and smaller parts of Smith Counties (accounting for roughly 15% of the total area)...5) For the first time in 14 months (since Oct. 2022), a small part of North Central Kansas (this time including mainly northwestern Smith County) was deemed void of all drought categories whatsoever (including D0), although this only accounted for around 5% of the six-county domain).
Turning to December 2023 precipitation details, it was overall great news across the area, with essentially the entire domain receiving at least slightly above normal amounts (meaning more than roughly 0.94), and over 30% of North Central Kansas picking up at least twice normal. Per around 35 ground-truth gauges (NWS/CoCoRaHS observers and a few KS Mesonet stations), some of the highest December tallies featured: 2.26 seven miles north-northeast of Natoma, 2.25 near Hunter and 2.21 in Smith Center. Long-time NWS Cooperative Observer sites at Smith Center (2.13) and near Burr Oak (2.12) actually registered their 4th and 7th-wettest December on record, respectively. Meanwhile, a few of the lowest (but still slightly above normal) totals included: 1.01 near Damar, 1.03 near Jewell and 1.08 in Logan. Despite sites such as the NWS Cooperative Observer in Beloit receiving solidly above normal December precipitation (1.65), longer-term deficits remained prominent, as Beloit totaled just 58.55 over the 33-month span from April 2021-Dec. 2023...25.74 below normal/69% of normal.

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

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

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

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

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

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