Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Missouri River Basin March – May 2019. Dated June 2019.

Average temperatures generally ranged from 2-8°F below normal, with the greatest departures in the upper Basin.  Precipitation, on the other hand, was extreme, with spring totals exceeding 150% of normal in many areas.

This publication is a summary of the original 72-page report. To learn more about the 2017 U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies drought, analysis, and mitigation efforts, download a copy of the full report (high resolution PDF , low resolution PDF)

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Missouri River Basin December 2018 – February 2019. Dated March 2019.

With a warm start and a cold end, average temperatures for the winter were only slightly below normal across the Missouri River Basin. Persistent cold, along with frequent snowstorms during the latter half of winter, allowed the snowpack to build across the Plains.

This assessment is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) response to a request by the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) for an evaluation of the causes, predictability, and historical context of the 2017 United States Northern Great Plains drought. This assessment was led by a team of weather and climate experts from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory’s Physical Sciences Division and its Cooperative Institute located at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The 2017 drought was a rapid-onset event for northeast Montana, the Dakotas, and the Canadian Prairies during the spring and summer of 2017. It was the worst drought to impact the U.S. Northern Plains in decades and it decimated crops across the region, resulting in $2.6 billion in agricultural losses in the U.S. alone, not including additional losses in Canada. The unique circumstances of this drought created an opportunity to evaluate and improve the efficacy of drought-related coordination, communication, and management within the region in preparation for future droughts.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Missouri River Basin March – May 2020. Dated June 2020.

Temperatures were largely near normal across the region this spring, with the exception of Colorado, which had its 12th warmest spring since records began in 1895. Although flooding impacted parts of the region this spring, warm and dry conditions early in the season reduced the flood risk and subsequent impacts.