Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Missouri River Basin for March–May 2023. Dated June 2023.

Cooler temperatures dominated the northern and western parts of the Basin, leading North Dakota to its 2nd coldest March–April. Temperatures rapidly flipped in May, with near-record warmth across the north. Precipitation was below normal for much of the basin this spring. Eastern Nebraska experienced record to near-record dryness this spring, exacerbating drought conditions.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for March–May 2023. Dated June 2023.

Temperatures were generally cool to cold west-wide, with notable cold anomalies along the California coast and in the interior Intermountain West. With few exceptions, spring was wetter than normal in the western U.S., largely owing to a wet March.

Under Congressional direction, NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) is leading an interagency team on the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB) Soil Moisture and Snowpack Data Value Study.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Missouri River Basin for December 2022–February 2023. Dated March 2023.

Temperatures were below normal for much of the region. Precipitation was well above normal in the central portions of the basin, with record to near-record wetness. Improvements to drought conditions occurred across much of the basin in response to the above-normal precipitation, with the region observing a nearly 15% decrease in drought.