western Kansas

Record-setting lack of rain in 2022 transformed parts of western Kansas into a temporary desert. And it'll take a while for the region's fields, towns and mindsets to recover.

A new study from Kansas State University researchers is the first to measure how a changing climate is hurting wheat production in the Great Plains. And it points to a future with more extreme heat, drought and wind.

After decades of irrigation, the aquifer that makes life possible in dry western Kansas is reaching a critical point. Several counties have already lost more than half of their underground water. But a new plan could save more of what’s left.

It’s been one year since widespread wildfires tore across western and central Kansas. For the ranchers who lost so much, the rebuilding process is far from over.

The latest lawsuit points to a dramatic rise in the Latino population in Dodge City over the past 20 years. No Latino candidate has been elected to the city commission this century.

For the first time, the state board voted Wednesday to say that Kansas shouldn’t pump the Ogallala aquifer dry to support crop irrigation. The underground water source has seen dramatic declines in recent decades.

From deadly wildfires to choking dust storms to decimated crop harvests, this year’s drought has left its mark across the country. For the hardest hit areas, such as the Great Plains, recovering from the far-reaching impacts of this historically dry year won’t be easy.

Thanks to decades of conservation efforts, Hays has become the California of Kansas — a place where thinking about your water use is a way of life. For now, it’s an outlier. But as climate change brings drier, hotter weather to Kansas, more cities may have to follow a similar path.

There's a temporary free-for-all at Ellis City Lake, where the same hideous drought that's killing western Kansas crops is poised to kill the fish. So many of the usual limits on fishing have been lifted to harvest fish before they die.

Drought is taking its toll on western Kansas cornfields this year. And all that dead corn could mean higher prices for products that depend on the state's grain supply, such as ethanol-infused gasoline and corn-fed beef.