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<br />season ended, Western Kansas was"Favorably Moist" everywhere except "Slightly Dry" along the <br />westernmost counties bordering Colorado. Fortunately, there was no such extended period of <br />month after month abnormally dry weather as can be seen in Southern and Central Texas from <br />mid-June onward. In fact, moisture was fairly typical of the area for summer---one in which dry <br />and wet periods of various durations were observed. <br /> <br />The longer-term Palmer Drought Severity Index shown in Figs. 16 - 19 showed a less <br />variable pattern. When the season began the only area that was considered not "Moist" on this <br />. index was that area west of a line from North-Central Kansas to the southwest corner of Kansas <br />and that was in the "Normal" moisture category---not in drought, nor too wet. However, as the <br />season wore on, by August 21st about the only area left in Western Kansas that wasn't considered <br />"Moist" was a small area in Cheyenne County (extreme NW Kansas). The nearest bi-weekly <br />Drought Severity Index to the end of the program was in early October (Fig. 19) and that showed <br />moisture near normal throughout most of Western Kansas with the exception of a "Moist" area in <br />the Southwest and South-central parts of Kansas. Nowhere in Kansas was there a problem of <br />drought from the long-term perspective. <br /> <br />Figures 20 - 22 depict county rainfall in Western Kansas. Fig. 20, on page 46, shows a <br />contoured map of the final rainfall distribution around the entire Western Kansas region for the <br />May - August period. Official National Weather Service first and second-order stations have been <br />used as well as information from two rainfall networks of volunteer observers scatter around in <br />Western Kansas, one operated by NW Kansas GMD #4, the other by WKGJ\ID # 1. There appear <br />to be four rainfall minima: (1) Ford County, extending into Hodgeman, (2) Grant-Stevens <br />counties, (3) southeastern Logan-northern Scott and northeastern Wichita counties, and (4) <br />Cheyenne-northern Sherman counties. <br /> <br />County areas in which the greatest precipitation appeared to be concentrated was in a <br />block over eastern Finney-Lane-Gove-Sheridan-Decatur-Graham-southeast Thomas-northeast <br />Logan. <br /> <br />Since rainfall totals shown on a map don't say anything about how.much ofa change it is <br />from any established long-term average, a list of target area counties showing these changes was <br />produced. On page 47, Figs. 21 and 22, respectively, are bar charts ofthe county-averaged <br />rainfall totals of: (1) the percentage departure from normal for each county in the WKWMP, and <br />(2) the departure in inches of rainfall from its long-term average. Kansas car license plate symbols <br />are used to designate each county as shown below: <br /> <br />CN - CHEYENNE <br />GO - GOVE <br />GL - GREELEY <br />LE - LANE <br />SD - SHERIDAN <br />W A - WALLACE <br /> <br />DC - DECATUR <br />GH-GRAHAM <br />HM - HAMILTON <br />LG-LOGAN <br />SH - SHERMAN <br />WI - WICHITA <br /> <br />FI-FINNEY <br />GT-GRANT <br />HS - HASKELL <br />RA - RAWLINS <br />ST - STANTON <br /> <br />FO - FORD <br />GY-GRAY <br />KE - KEARNY <br />SC - SCOTT <br />TH - THOMAS\ <br /> <br />45 <br />