A Dry One
Hartington area was well below average in moisture in 2021
HARTINGTON — It was a very dry year in the Hartington area in 2021.
The average precipitation for this area is 29.59 inches a year. The Hartington area fell far short of that, measuring only 20.73 inches of precipitation in 2021.
Hartington only received above average precipitation in two months during 2021 — March and July.
The driest month of the year was in February when only .16 inches of precipitation fell here. In all, less than one inch of precip fell here in six of the 12 months of 2021.
The wettest month of 2021 came in March when 5.35 inches of precipitation fell here.
The wettest day of the year was also in March when 1.65 inches of rain fell in the Hartington area on March 14.
It was not only dry here in 2021, but it was hot, too.
The thermometer climbed above 90 degrees a whopping 43 times in 2021.
It topped the century mark three times.
New record highs were recorded on all three of those days — June 16, 17, 18.
June was by far the hottest month of the year as the high was in the 80s all but two days of the month. February turned out to be a real bone chiller of a month as there was an 11-day stretch in February where the low temperature of the day was below zero. Sixteen February days were in single digits, while the low was above freezing for one day in February. It reached a low of 33 degrees on Feb. 26. The high temperature was only above freezing 10 times in February.
This marks the second straight year where Hartington has recorded below average precipitation.
The Hartington area had a couple of very dry months in 2020. The year started out very dry as January and February combined for the driest two months of the year. Combined, only .19 inches of precipitation fell here from the start of the year until March 10. April 2020, was once again a dry month, as only .85 inches of precipitation fell here, far short of the 3.03 inches of rain that typically falls here in April.
Despite having nine months of below-average precipitation, though, the area was only 2.73 inches behind average for 2020.
Some timely rains in May, June and July helped area farmers produce a good crop in 2020. Irrigation, and lots of it were responsible for good crops here in 2021.