Western Nebraska’s Unseasonably Warm and Windy Winter Setting Up for a Dry Season

By Jackie Ourada

Autumn seems to be giving a record-long Midwestern goodbye in some parts of Nebraska, where a lack of snowfall, or even intermittent rain, is leaving pastures dry and dusty.

“I think it’s certainly possible that there’s parts of Morrill County that I’m not sure they’ve actually had anything fall out of the sky since October,” University of Nebraska agricultural meteorologist Eric Hunt said.

Other than the southeast part of Nebraska, most areas of the state haven’t seen timely snow or rain for much of the winter season. The dry, warm and windy weather is setting the state up for a dry year, unless precipitation patterns change in the coming months.

“Just based on feedback from extension educators that cover that region of the state, things are getting pretty bad out there,” Hunt said. He said parts of western and southwestern Nebraska experienced one of the driest Decembers on record.

The lack of snowfall is similar to what Nebraska saw at the beginning of 2025, when meteorologists and climatologists warned it could be a record dry year with large wildfire potential. But a sudden burst of summer rain saved much of Nebraska and even aided in record crop yields just before harvest.