Wichita ? Severe drought continues to grip northwest Kansas, making it the hardest-hit area in the state, a newly released drought report shows.

While southwest Kansas was the first part of the state to come into the drought, northwest Kansas — part of the Upper Republican River basin — has had more severe conditions through last year, said Tom Lowe, an environmental scientist with the Kansas Water Office.

The Kansas Water Office’s latest report provides a midwinter update on conditions for the state. It also lists the extreme northeast corner of Kansas, in the Missouri River Basin, as the only other area of the state remaining in a severe drought.

The report also noted that the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center, in its latest seasonal drought outlook for the period that runs through April, indicated some improvement in drought conditions for the state.

But Lowe pointed out that was just a generalization that the El Nino weather phenomena typically brings more rain to the Kansas than normal. That has not happened yet this winter, he said.

“It is too early to raise a huge red flag — winter is our dry season and we are having a dry winter,” he said. “Where I would start being concerned is if we move into spring and this doesn’t start turning around.”

The state water report listed the Solomon River Basin in north-central Kansas, as well as the Kansas-Lower Republican Basin to its east, as being in a moderate drought.

River basins along a narrow band extending across the center of the state from its western to eastern borders all were classified as remaining in a mild drought: Smoky Hill-Saline, Neosho and Marais Des Cygnes.

The Upper Arkansas River Basin in western Kansas and Verdigris basin in southeastern Kansas were classified as being in an “incipient dry spell.”