Custer well below normal precip

About three-quarters of Custer County is now in an extreme drought due to a year that saw most of the months—particularly the summer months—bring less precipitation than normal.
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that Custer County from the eastern border of Custer State Park west is in extreme drought, while the area from the western boundary of the park to the eastern border of the county is in severe drought.
For the year, the area around the City of Custer had received 14.36 inches of precipitation as of Sunday, which is 5.29 inches less than the average year total of 19.65.
While February and March were above-average precipitation months, Custer initially started to dry out in April, as the 1.76 inches of precipitation was less than the average of 2.04. In May Custer rebounded with four inches of precipitation, but precipitation fell off a cliff in the summer months, as Custer received .92, .90 and 1.20 inches of precipitation in June, July and August, well below the averages for those months of 2.83, 2.75 and 2.33, respectively.
October was also unusually dry, with only .42 inches of precipitation, compared to 1.47 inches on average. Custer has only received trace precipitation in December.
Before late last weekend temperatures were also unusually warm, with Katie Pojorlie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, saying a ridge of high pressure caused the warm temperatures and lack of winds. A clipper system—a low-pressure system that spawns in the Canadian province of Alberta before shifting southeast into the United States—came in over the weekend. Such systems are generally preceded by warmer weather that surrounds the low pressure system.
Pojorlie said the Climate Prediction Center actually indicates we should have lower than normal temperatures in the area for the next three months, but there is no real indication as to how precipitation will shake out as the effects of La Niña emerge. With this, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast, and cooler than normal in the Northwest.