Recent rains are providing slight drought relief for the region, according to Cowley County Emergency Management Thursday.
“With current precipitation from rainfall we are showing a slight positive increase for drought conditions,” CCEM posted on its Facebook page Thursday afternoon. “Five to six inches of rainfall total is predicted in the next seven days.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor — a joint effort of the National Drought Mitigation Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — much of Cowley County remains in a D4, “exceptional” drought, which is the highest level of drought.
The data was updated as of Tuesday.
The Drought Monitor says May was the 43rd-driest May on record, over the past 129 years and that precipitation was 1.23 inches below normal.
So far for the year, 2023 has been the 18th-driest on record for Cowley County as of May with precipitation 4.3 inches below normal.
Drought in the county is not new just for 2023, however.
By the end of 2022, Cowley County’s precipitation for the year was nearly 3 inches below average — or 2.85 inches, to be exact.
The Drought Monitor also classified over 103,000 acres of soybeans, 66,000+ acres of wheat, 26,000+ acres of corn, nearly 29,000 head of cattle and over 2,000 head of sheep in the county currently in drought.
