Sep. 2017: Precipitation/Temperature Summary For Our 30-County Coverage Area (South Central NE/North Central KS)

Recap of September 2017 Weather for the 30-county NWS Hastings Coverage Area: 

- Rainfall: Unlike August which featured a rather sharp disparity between wetter (north) and drier (south), Sep. featured relatively uniform, relatively normal rainfall across most of the area. More specifically, most places tallied between 1.75"-3.50", or generally between 75-150% of normal. In other words, hardly any areas were "overly dry" or "overly wet". For all areas, the vast majority of rain fell during the second half of the month (and especially during the last week). If any places stood out a bit on the drier side they included primarily: northwestern Rooks/southwestern Phillips and south central Osborne counties in KS, and southeastern York County in Nebraska. Per official NWS observers and CoCoRaHS/NeRAIN stations, a few of the lowest totals included: 1.22" (Covert KS and Superior), 1.27" (Logan KS) and 1.43" (1ENE McCool Junction). On the wetter side of things were primarily portions of various counties mainly along/north of I-80, with individual official station leaders including: St. Paul (3.75"), Gothenburg (3.67") and near Central City (3.57"). Although there was no official gauge sites available to verify, radar-aided precip analysis suggests that a very narrow corridor of mainly western Buffalo and far southeastern Dawson County likely received at least 4-5", most of which fell on the 15th (see flooding section below). 

- Flooding: There was hardly any flooding to speak of during the month, as the vast majority of rain fell in small enough quantities and/or over long enough time spans to minimize runoff. However, there might have been one localized exception: on the evening of Sep. 15th, a persistent area of storms dumped a narrow swath of 3+" mainly across parts of western Buffalo County into far southeastern Dawson County, including an unofficial report of 3.75" in Elm Creek. While it's probably safe to assume that at least minor, very localized flooding occurred, NWS Hastings received no ground-truth reports. 

- Temperatures: In contrast to the preceding month, Sep. 2017 was solidly warmer-than-normal, averaging between 2-4º above in most places. Although this was far from even a Top-10 warmest, there was plenty of late-summer/early fall heat. The overall-warmest portion of the month was the middle, as places such as Grand Island and Hastings (just to name a few) had above normal temperatures on 15-of-17 days between the 8th-24th. As for monthly extremes per official NWS observers, some of the hottest highs occurred between the 19th-22nd and featured 105° at Webster Dam KS, 102° near Alton and Plainville KS, and on the Nebraska side of the border 101º at Harlan County Lake. As for the chilliest lows, Greeley dropped to 36º on the 6th, while various other sites recorded 38º on either the 6th or 28th, including Cambridge, Edison, Ord and near Alton KS. However, no frost was noted during the month. 

- Severe Thunderstorms/Tornadoes: September is often a fairly "hit or miss" month in terms of severe storms, and Sep. 2017 was quite "dead" overall. There were zero tornadoes, and the only verified/ground-truth reports of large hail/damaging winds occurred on the evening of Sep. 15th, as a persistent area of severe storms pounded a relatively small area of primarily southwestern Buffalo and southeastern Dawson counties for a few hours, disrupting some area high school football games and yielding several reports of quarter to half dollar size hail and a few reports of estimated 60+ MPH winds.

2017 Nebraska Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 45 sites)
2017 Kansas Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 18 sites)
(for the 2017 tables, data for the previous month usually gets updated by around the 15th of the current month)

2016 Nebraska Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 45 sites)
2016 Kansas Cooperative Observer Precipitation Tables (around 18 sites)