Severe weather saturates soils in Kansas, easing drought conditions for a third of the state

Drought conditions continue to “ebb and flow” across the state of Kansas as much-needed rainfall eliminates drought in much of the eastern third of the state, while dry conditions remain to the west. 

Christopher Redmond, assistant meteorologist at Kansas State University, says several storm systems were active across Kansas this past week, which helped bring the rain that has eased drought for the eastern part of the state. 

“The moisture has been fairly heavily loaded to the eastern part of the state,” Redmond says. Redmond adds he area of the state that’s received the greatest amount of rain, though, continues to be northeast Kansas.

The rainfall that Kansas received recently, however, Redmond says has been a result of severe storms, bringing intense wind alongside the precipitation. “The storms moved slowly,” Redmond says, “slow enough to bring some much-needed rainfall. Unfortunately, the wind component of it was an issue.”

Over 100 wind reports were measured over the week of May 19, Redmond says. Annually, Redmond says Kansas typically reports around 270 wind events. 

Thankfully the high winds and severe storms that occurred brought minimal tornadoes, Redmond says. “There have been brief spit ups,” he says. “They’re still damaging, but they’re limited in coverage.”

Because of the precipitation brought on by the recent storms, Redmond says Kansas has some “very saturated soils” due to a larger amount of rain over a longer period of time. “Now all the ponds have been filled up,” he says.

The USDA Crop Progress report for Kansas for the week ending May 19 shows most of the soil moisture in Kansas is adequate. Topsoil moisture supplies rated 17% very short, 22% short, 51% adequate, and 10% surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies rated 20% very short, 29% short, 47% adequate, and 4% surplus.

As a result of the filled up ponds and saturated soils, Redmond says that northeast Kansas has seen substantial improvements in drought conditions.

“Most of the eastern third of the state is now drought free,” Redmond says. “However, we still have really dry conditions in the southwest, and extreme drought still remains in one little corridor around Pawnee County.”

Not only is the southwest seeing continued drought conditions, but Redmond says severe drought has expanded along the Colorado border into northwestern Kansas. 

The latest drought monitor map shows that less than 1% of the state is in D3 extreme drought, 26% is in D2 severe drought, 21% is in D1 moderate drought, 19% is abnormally dry, and the remaining 33% of Kansas is free from drought stress.

Rômulo Lollato, an associate professor at Kansas State University, says the drought conditions that have affected the state for the past few months have caused trouble for some winter wheat growers. The dry conditions didn’t begin impacting winter wheat farmers until the end of the winter months, though, Lollato says.

“At that point, [the winter wheat] crop started going backwards,” Lollato says. The drought conditions have caused the state’s winter wheat fields to be “very wavy and variable,” he says. 

The USDA Crop Progress report for Kansas for the week ending May 19 shows that winter wheat conditions were 11% very poor, 20% poor, 36% fair, 30% good, and 3% excellent.

For winter wheat farmers in the northwestern part of the state, Lollato says, despite a dry start to the growing season and continued drought conditions, that area’s wheat is “probably one of the best looking in the state.”

In some parts of Kansas, though, Lollato says he’s spoken to some farmers who have already abandoned their winter wheat crop this season. Severe drought stress paired with freeze damage from late March have negatively impacted yields to the point that farmers are calling their insurance on the crop, Lollato says.

Although drought stress has impacted many winter wheat farmers, Lollato says Kansas is coming out of “two to three terrible years, and I’d still probably rate [the winter wheat crop] above what we had last year. So I think we’re probably headed to an average to below average crop for the state.”