North Platte experienced driest 365 days on record

NORTH PLATTE (AP) – North Platte has just experienced its driest 365-day period in recorded history, according to National Weather Service records.

The service said 7.23 inches of rain fell between April 28, 2012, and Saturday. The office recorded 1.22 inches on April 27 last year and less than an inch on any rainy day since.

Weather service meteorologist Bill Taylor told The North Platte Telegraph that North Platte hasn’t been this dry since the Dust Bowl years.

“The last time that happened was from June 10, 1931, to June 9, 1932, when they had 7.87 inches,” Taylor said.

The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says much of west-central Nebraska remains in exceptional or extreme drought.

Another year like this would “do quite a bit of damage to the grasses and the Sandhills,” Taylor said.

The average precipitation for a calendar year is 20.23 inches in North Platte, weather service records say. Last year the area had 10.04 inches from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31.

The wettest 365-day period recorded for the area ran from July 18, 1950, to July 17, 1951, when 38.1 inches of precipitation fell. A drought soon followed.

“We had years in the mid-’50s where we had several years in a row where we only had 10 to 12 inches, Taylor said.

Severely dry years rarely repeat themselves the following years, he said.

“Looking back at history, we should recover somewhat, precipitation-wise,” Taylor said.