‘Hanging on by its fingernails’: Drought levels double as dry conditions deepen

The percentage of Nebraska land experiencing "extreme drought" nearly doubled in the latest drought map update from the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) released Thursday.

Extreme drought is the second-worst level of drought in the NDMC’s classification. So far this year, Nebraska hasn’t experienced the worst classification, exceptional drought, but it can certainly feel desperately dry, according to landowners in those dry areas.

Valley County is one area in Central Nebraska that’s jumped two classification levels over the last month – from moderate drought in early April to extreme drought this week. But Tylr Naprstek, the assistant general manager of the Lower Loup Natural Resources District in Ord, said they’ve been feeling the lingering drought since dry conditions first set in in 2022.

“Then, the end of June [2024] came around and somebody shut off the waterworks, and it’s just been consecutively getting drier and drier ever since," he said. "Drought’s just been hanging on by its fingernails around this area.”

Naprstek said streamflows in his district are all lower than normal, given the dry conditions and earlier-than-normal pumping from ag producers. The National Weather Service had similar findings in its Drought Information Statement released this week. The National Weather Service said the Crops Moisture Index is reflecting the parched soil conditions in Nebraska that are affecting ag activity across Nebraska.

“There’s a lot of systems that are kicking on to get the corn crop or bean crop started,” Nprstek said. “Consequently, or coupled with the fact that it’s just not raining, we’re seeing a drawdown in a lot of our streams.”

While Naprstek said he’s never seen any of the nearby rivers going dry, one of the streams south of his district is slowing down to a trickle. The South Loup River, which flows through southern Custer County and into Buffalo County, was only flowing at 114 cubic feet per second on Friday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauges. The average at this time of year is 291 cubic feet per second. The slowest it’s ever dipped to was in 1955 at 100 cubic feet per second, according to USGS records.

Landowners who draw water from Lower Loup NRD’s wells don’t have an allocation – essentially a limit as to how much water can be pulled from the underlying aquifer. Allocations are in place in some of Nebraska’s NRDs, but Naprstek said his district is starting to put meters on all high-capacity wells, often used for ag irrigation or commercial industrial irrigation, to monitor the amount of water being pulled.

The implementation of the meters are a part of the Lower Loup NRD’s drought plan, which was enacted in late 2022. There hasn’t been a need to enforce allocations because groundwater levels have never dipped to concerning levels, but Naprstek and other stakeholders know a day may come where limits need to be considered.

He doesn’t believe allocations will be put into place this year, but he said landowners should be mindful of the water they use as land continues to dry out. There’s a possibility that well owners could have issues with pumping water later this year.

“It could be a well issue, but it could also be an aquifer issue, and if the NRD doesn’t know, there’s nothing we can do to help you,” Naprstek said. “I would report any well issues to your NRD, so they can be aware of it.”

The town of Lisco, in the southern portion of Nebraska’s panhandle, is another spot that saw worsening conditions in this week’s drought map. Lisco Irrigation District President Craig Shaffer said it feels like the rainfall just “shut off” after last fall.

“I did dig a hole and check the subsoil moisture, and there is moisture down 8-10 inches. It won’t take a lot to get us rolling good, but [the rain] must be timely and come at the sufficient time.”

Shaffer is a property owner near Lisco, which sits just south of the North Platte River in Garden County. In some very dry years, the district will have to shut off or reduce surface water flows to ag producers, but he hasn’t heard talk of that yet.

“I know the [North Platte] River is low, but we’re just now getting water in our ditch, so hopefully it’ll hold together for a while for us," he said.

Shaffer said many of the crop farmers that live in the Lisco Irrigation District changed their planting plans this year given the consistent lack of rainfall so far and the lack of promise for more precipitation later this year.

“I’m sure some of the farmers on the ditch are probably planting closer to dry land rates [rather] than irrigated rates,” Shaffer said. “They’re putting less seed in and treating it like it’s going to be dryland.”

Just a few days ago, Shaffer said a sudden storm rolled through and dropped three-quarters of an inch of rain. He’s hoping the rains, even if they’re sporadic, can stick around over the next few months.

“I always try to stay optimistic,” Shaffer said. “I always say we’re a day closer to the next rain.”