Driest year on record for Crook County

This year is now officially listed as the county’s driest in 127 years of monitoring, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). The county is said to have received an estimated 5.82 fewer inches of precipitation than normal.

At this time, 100% of the Crook County population is still affected by drought conditions, a situation that has not changed over the last month.

The most recent drought map places 82.33% of the county in a situation of extreme drought, with the southeastern quarter reported to be in severe drought, fading into moderate drought in the southeastern corner.

Temperatures over the last month have been around 1 degree above normal, or up to 3 degrees in the central portion of the county and around Sundance.

Precipitation has been under 25% of normal in the northeastern corner of the county, with much of the northern portion reported to have received between 25 and 50% of usual and central to southern Crook County seeing as low as 50% of normal precipitation.

As with almost the entire western portion of the United States, drought conditions in the county are expected to persist over the next month and, indeed, for the remainder of the fall.