TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNW) – Governor Jeff Colyer, MD issued Drought declarations for Kansas counties at a press conference on Tuesday.
Secretary of Agriculture Jackie McClaskey and Kansas Water Office Director Tracy Streeter were also in attendence.
The declaration includes all 105 counties either in an emergency, warning or watch status.
“The entire State of Kansas has been considered in drought or abnormally dry conditions for the past several weeks,” said Governor Colyer.
“This has led to an extremely high risk of fire hazards and many have already occurred.” The drought declaration placed 28 counties in emergency status, 29 into a warning status and 48 into a watch status.
Over the past six months the state-wide average precipitation was only 66 percent of normal and in January and February the state-wide average precipitation was even less, at 43 percent of normal.
Counties who are in emergency stage are eligible for emergency use of water from certain state fishing lakes due to the Kansas Water Office Memorandum of Understanding with the Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism.
Drought Emergency: Barber, Barton, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Hamilton, Harper, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearny, Kingman, Kiowa, Meade, Morton, Pawnee, Pratt, Reno, Rice, Sedgwick, Seward, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, Sumner Drought Warning: Allen, Butler, Chautauqua, Chase, Cowley, Dickinson, Elk, Ellis, Ellsworth, Greeley, Greenwood, Harvey, Lane, Lincoln, Marion, McPherson, Montgomery, Morris, Neosho, Ness, Rush, Russell, Saline, Scott, Trego, Wallace, Wichita, Wilson, Woodson Drought Watch: Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Clay, Cloud, Coffey, Crawford, Decatur, Doniphan, Douglas, Franklin, Geary, Gove, Graham, Jackson, Jefferson, Jewell, Johnson, Labette, Leavenworth, Linn, Logan, Lyon, Marshall, Miami, Mitchell, Nemaha, Norton, Osage, Osborne, Ottawa, Phillips, Pottawatomie, Rawlins, Republic, Riley, Rooks, Shawnee, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Thomas, Wabaunsee, Washington, Wyandotte