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003~52 9 ( lions from an expanded u-ee-ring cL:lta base. They confmned the existence of the "Great Drought" but placed it from 1273 through 1289. Although this was the most suStained dry period since 1273, it appeared to have been SUf]lassed by ten other droughts between A.D. 512 and 1673. The lowest 5-year means of these droughts occurred in A.D. 517, 565. 614. 844. 1170, 1402, 1525. 1585 and 1670. Slockton and Meko (1975) used tree-ring series from 40 sites to reconstruct the drought history of roughly the area west of the Mississippi River for the period A.D. 1700-1962. Using the total area in drought as a measure of severity, they found the driest three-year periods to be 1934-1936. 1845-1847. 1863-1865. 1755- 1757 and 1734-1736. The most severe drought year occurred in 1934, followed closely by 1847 and 1757. The longest sustained period of dry weather was from 1729 10 the early 1740's. Smith (Reconslruction....1986) extended the record of Wet and dry years in northeastern Nevada back 10 A.D. 1600. using tree-ring data collected from lower elevation sites of single-leaf Pinyon Pine in the area. Divisional climatic data from the National Weather Service were used 10 develop ring width-precipitation ( relationships. Based on the divisional data. average precipitation for 1931-1982 was 10.98 inches. Results strongly suggest that ~ was the driest year sin~e 1600. Severe droughts also occurred in 1637. 1729. 1735, 1824, 1863, 1879 and 1959; 1879 closely approached 1934 in drought severity. The lower limit of divi- sional precipitation (September-August) for the years 1600-1982 was estimated to be about 6.0 inches. The driestlO-year interval was 1652-1661. Interestingly, the decade of the 1930's. known as the "dust bowl" in the Great Plains. was only the 13th driest decade during the period of reconstruction. In contrast to the dry years. 1983 (18.03 inches) was the wenest sin~le year and 1905-1914 (12.57) the wettest decade since 1600.