Rain cut across a swath of land stretching from the central High Plains into the eastern Dakotas, helping alleviate dryness in an area that includes North Dakota. The rain fell across a strip in the High Plains that included western and central Kansas, central Nebraska and the eastern Dakotas, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report.
The Williston area still lies in areas marked extreme and severe drought on the drought map, but has made up some of its precipitation deficit with recent rain, according to National Weather Service measurements taken at the Sloulin International Airport.
Radar estimates of rainfall in most surrounding areas also show that dryness is improving, though there are notable exceptions to that trend.
There were also several days during the month that were peppered with a few hundredths of an inch of rain here or there, including the last three or four days.
“They were not big totals, but with the cooler temperatures and a tenth of an inch or better of rain each day for about three days now, my guess is the ground out there is probably still damp,” Schlag said.
That should also help the situation.
“I think, in general, conditions have improved dramatically compared to what they were in June and July,” Schlag said. It was terrible in the summer, and there’s still a hangover because some of the impacts cannot be fixed.