Growing season precipitation for Kansas in 2022

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Adequate moisture is a must for crops and ultimately yield. Problems arise when too much or too little precipitation falls. Unfortunately, the nature of climate is the average of extremes on the high and low end of the spectrum. Additionally, geography favors more moisture for eastern Kansas, with a decrease in averages with western extent. This year, we have a drought situation across much of the state. This article will provide some historical perspective of 2022 precipitation thus far.

Rainfall period: April 1 to July 20, 2022

The dataset for this report consists of precipitation received at 36 different locations across Kansas from the period April 1-July 20, 2022 (Table 1), which we will refer to herein as the “growing season” to date. For inclusion, a site must have at least 50 years of data, and each year must have no more than 7 missing records. Four sites were selected from each of Kansas’ nine climate regions (Figure 1) to give equal representation across all areas of the state. The rank listed for each city is calculated by sorting each site’s precipitation totals for the same period in ascending order, from driest to wettest. The driest of all years ranks 1st, the next driest 2nd, and so forth. But, since each site has been around for a different number of years, evaluating sites by ranks doesn’t fairly compare them. A better way to compare sites with different periods of record is to sort by percentiles.
 

Table 1. Total precipitation from April 1-July 20, 2022, in order of increasing percentile.

Site

County

Climate

Division

Precip. (in.)

Rank

Years

Percentile

Healy

 Lane

 KS04

2.64

1

122

1

Garden City

 Finney

 KS07

1.89

1

70

1

Russell Springs

 Logan

 KS04

3.96

3

75

4

Tribune

 Greeley

 KS04

3.60

5

113

4

WaKeeney

 Trego

 KS04

5.35

5

112

4

Dodge City

 Ford

 KS07

4.28

5

109

5

Colby

 Thomas

 KS01

5.10

5

68

7

Hill City

 Graham

 KS01

5.18

7

89

8

Ashland

 Clark

 KS07

5.83

10

123

8

Atwood

 Rawlins

 KS01

6.03

9

96

9

Goodland

 Sherman

 KS01

5.35

16

109

15

Beloit

 Mitchell

 KS02

9.73

28

108

26

Russell

 Russell

 KS05

8.57

19

71

27

Smith Center

 Smith

 KS02

8.96

30

107

28

Hugoton

 Stevens

 KS07

7.38

33

107

31

Greensburg

 Kiowa

 KS08

9.05

35

105

33

Holton

 Jackson

 KS03

14.09

35

101

35

Chanute

 Neosho

 KS09

16.04

46

111

41

Concordia

 Cloud

 KS02

11.64

63

137

46

Atchison

 Atchison

 KS03

15.61

59

116

51

Clay Center

 Clay

 KS02

13.59

60

114

53

Emporia

 Lyon

 KS06

16.66

29

52

56

Lawrence

 Douglas

 KS06

16.96

73

122

60

Topeka

 Shawnee

 KS06

16.29

47

76

62

Arkansas City

 Cowley

 KS09

16.83

49

79

62

McPherson

 McPherson

 KS05

15.28

84

126

67

Wellington

 Sumner

 KS08

18.38

78

109

72

Osage City

 Osage

 KS06

19.13

72

99

73

Parsons

 Labette

 KS09

22.90

73

97

75

Manhattan

 Riley

 KS03

19.05

98

126

78

Wichita

 Sedgwick

 KS08

18.58

55

69

80

Newton

 Harvey

 KS08

18.64

96

119

81

Salina

 Saline

 KS05

16.41

53

65

82

Marysville

 Marshall

 KS03

17.93

63

75

84

Fort Scott

 Bourbon

 KS09

22.87

95

113

84

Abilene

 Dickinson

 KS05

19.04

89

99

90

 

Figure 1. Map of Kansas Climate Divisions.

 

A quick example to clarify the interpretation of percentiles is in order. For example, at Manhattan, precipitation for the growing season this year ranks as the 98th driest out of 126 years. The listed percentile, 78, means that 78% of the 126 years on record at Manhattan are drier than 2022 for the growing season. A percentile of 50 indicates the median, or middle, value out of all seasons. Percentiles less than 50 indicate drier years than the median, and those above 50 are wetter years.

The lack of precipitation in the western third of Kansas is clearly evident in the data. Eleven of the twelve lowest percentiles are in western Kansas, with Healy and Garden City the most extreme, as both of their growing seasons rank as the driest on record!  Looking at Garden City since the beginning of the year, it remains the driest on record (Figure 2). Colby, Dodge City, and Hill City are just three of the locations experiencing one of their 10 driest growing seasons. Central and eastern Kansas have had more precipitation, and most of those sites have above median precipitation, with a few exceptions. As we know, a stray thunderstorm can drop a lot of rain in one county and miss the next one, so there is variation in percentiles even within the same climate division. Wichita, Salina, and Manhattan have all had copious amounts of precipitation this spring, but it’s Abilene that has the highest percentile currently of 90. Only ten percent of the years on record in Abilene have had more precipitation.
 

Figure 2. Garden City accumulated precipitation since January 1st showing the driest on record as of July 20, 2022.

 

As we move into late summer, it will be interesting to see how this year will stack up compared to previous years across the state. One thing is for certain: western Kansas desperately needs moisture. Driest on record, while climatologically significant, is potentially devastating to agriculture interests in Kansas. Here’s hoping things change for the better soon.

 

 

Matthew Sittel, Assistant State Climatologist
msittel@ksu.edu

Christopher “Chip” Redmond, Kansas Mesonet Manager
christopherredmond@k-state.edu


Tags:  weather Climate precipitation