Nebraska's climate comes in two types

According to the state climatologist, we only have two types of conditions in Nebraska: too wet and too dry. And, as is all too common, the western part of the state has the short end of the stick.

Pronouncements by the expert, Al Dutcher, at a water conference in Holdrege on Thursday, also seem to prove the axiom that "ignorance is bliss."

Perhaps we wouldn't like to know that La Niņa, the unusually cool water conditions in the Pacific Ocean, may not disappear early this year as expected, and may persist until next winter.

If that happens -- there's a 50-50 chance, according to Dutcher -- we may have a relatively wet spring followed by drought this summer.

In eastern Nebraska, he said, some soils are so saturated with moisture that spring planting may be delayed this year, and a dry year won't be all that bad.

West of a line from McCook north to South Dakota, it's so dry that Lake McConaughy, for example, may reach record low levels this summer.

A dry summer will be bitter medicine to swallow, but perhaps it will keep us focused on the Republican River water crisis until it is solved.