SW Kansas Residents Say Spring Worst in Memory

ELKHART, Kan. (AP) – Some longtime southwest Kansas residents accustomed to long periods without rain say this spring was one of the worst they can remember.

The Hutchinson News reports Morton County, which sits closer to three state capitals than its own in Topeka, still has received only about 75 percent of normal precipitation, even after an unusually wet June.

Morton County farmer Scott Shrauner says the county hasn’t received normal rainfall in at least seven years. The July rains came too late to help the dryland wheat crop, which Shrauner says he doesn’t expect to cut much of this year.

The Kansas State University ag research center in Garden City says January through May was the driest start to the year on record with just 2.07 inches of precipitation.