The Superior Express -

With the area’s economy dependent upon rainfall, the topic of moisture is often the subject of conversations. The year 2022 is now in the history book and for the local area, it will most likely be classified as a “drought” year.

Rainfall totals can vary, a lot, even in short distances. We just recorded 2022 total for some locations in Nuckolls and Webster counties from the Little Blue NRD webs site. For the year: Oak: 14.7”; Lawrence: 17.4”; Nelson: 17.6”; Nora 20.14”; SSE Lawrence: 21.6”; and Superior: 23.7”.

In Webster County for 2022: Blue Hill East 15.7”; Blue Hill: 18.3”; Red Cloud: 20.2”; Guide Rock: 21.2”.

In the last four months there has been only 10 days of measurable moisture and like the rest of the year, amounts varied. For example, in four months Oak received 0.90” of rain while Superior had 4.0” of moisture. In Webster County, Blue Hill had 2.5” and Guide Rock 3.7” of rain.

Average rainfall for Nuckolls and Webster counties varies from around 21 to 23 inches and almost all reporting stations have come up short of those amounts this year.

One of the drying years in the past 20 or so years was 2004. The average rain fall that year was 15.41” in Nuckolls County and 17.7” in Webster County. A lot of this year’s rain total will be less.

One of the wettest years recently was 2019 when Webster County had an average of 31.1” of rain and Nuckolls County had a total of 32.36”.

Precipitation has varied widely on Monday in Nuckolls County.

CoCoRahs observers report the following amounts received on Monday.

1.5 miles north of Nora, 0.25

0.3 miles SSE of Lawrence, 0.35

6.6 miles NE Superior 0.17

8.4 miles NW Superior 0.33

In Superior, 0.16

4.8 miles SSE of Deweese 0.45