By Tina Kitt
    The Wauneta Breeze
    
     The ongoing drought, many years in the making, seemed to slow down and take a breather in 2004, with year-end total moisture coming in above average.
     Heavy rains in July, totalling 9.78 inches as measured by National Weather Service recorder Terry Harris north of Wauneta, helped offset several months of below average rainfall as Wauneta finished the year with an official tally of 23.11 inches, according to Christina Hannon with the National Weather Service in North Platte.
     This compares with year-end totals of 16.99 inches in 2003 and 8.62 in 2002. The long-term annual average for Wauneta is 19.32 inches, according to NWS data.
     First-half moisture in southwest Nebraska was short again in 2004, a common development over the past eight years since telltale signs of the drought first emerged in 1997.
     July, however, brought a welcome if somewhat overabundant reprieve to the area. Heavy rains in early July caused low-level flooding along the Frenchman River and its branches in southwest Nebraska. According to NWS data, 9.78 inches of rain was measured in July at the Wauneta weather station 3 miles north of town, making it by far the wettest month this past year.
     Harris recorded less than one-tenth of an inch of precipitation in March, making it the driest month in 2004 in Wauneta.
     South of town 9 miles at what is officially referred to as the Max recording station, NWS recorder Jim Long measured 25.58 inches in 2004, with July the wettest month at 9.40 inches and December the driest at .12 of an inch.
     At Enders Reservoir, the Bureau of Reclamation reports a year-end tally of 22.77 inches, with July bringing the heaviest monthly total at 7.44 inches. December proved the driest month at Enders with the Bureau reporting .19 inches last month.
     At other moisture recording stations around the area, Palisade had a year-end total of 22.24 inches, Hayes Center finished the year with 23.39 inches, and Benkelman tallied 22.38 inches, according to data made available through the NWS and High Plains Climate Center.
     Unofficially, Imperial received 16.12 inches moisture in 2004, but it is not clear if all moisture data was included after the retirement of their longtime weather recorder.
     In the Wauneta area, well-timed rains and cool July temperatures in some locations gave crops a boost, with strong dryland yields seen in isolated areas. Spotty rains earlier in the summer also brought isolated areas of severe hail damage.
     Temperature-wise, it was not your typical year in southwest Nebraska, if there is such a thing as a typical year. The area saw another warm, open winter, with late February temps climbing into the 60s. By March, daytime highs in the 80s were common. On May 5, the high for the day was 98 degrees.
     We hit the century mark for the first time in 2004 on June 7 when the daytime high reached 102 degrees. The low for the year was a minus 12 degrees on Jan. 5, 2004.
     By late June the hot weather seemed to pass, with daytime highs in the 50s. July and August, usually the hottest months of the year, saw daytime highs in the low 60s and 70s.
     The area experienced a mild fall, with daytime highs in November often in the high 70s. A late killing frost settled over the area when overnight temps hit a low of 21 degrees on Nov. 10.