Most of Minnesota is abnormally dry, with some areas officially reaching drought stage, and forecasters said conditions are unlikely to improve in the next few weeks.
About 72% of the state is drier than typical, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Twelve percent — including patches along the North Shore, a zone stretching from the northern Twin Cities to St. Cloud to Lake Mille Lacs, and three small areas on the state's western edge and southeast tip — are in moderate drought. During this stage of dryness, river and lake levels start to recede.
The overall dry conditions may be a surprise after the rain this past weekend when a few inches fell across the Twin Cities and one extremely wet storm cell dropped as much as 8 inches of rain in the southwest around Franklin, according to estimates from weather radar.
But the rain was too spotty to make a significant difference statewide, said Melissa Dye, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Twin Cities office in Chanhassen. And at least through the first week of July, Minnesota has an elevated chance of high temperatures, and a lower chance of rain than normal, according to the federal Climate Prediction Center.
"Unfortunately, we don't have a whole lot in the way of precipitation coming [for the Twin Cities region]," Dye said. "Our next chance will probably be Thursday night into Friday, but as far as amounts, I don't know that we're expecting too much."
The dry stretch along much of the North Shore is unlikely to do better, said Dean Melde, a Weather Service meteorologist in Duluth.
The next chance for rain there comes this weekend, but "right now, it doesn't look like a big system. Definitely not a drought buster," Melde said.
Carolyn Olson, a farmer in Lyon County, said the absence of moisture for a third consecutive summer has increasingly dire ramifications for her crops. Recently, a crew dug down through 13 feet of ground to repair the tiles in her fields and reported back the worrisome news.
"They said it was dry all the way down," she said.
For Olson, who daily monitors her rain gauge, drought maps can be occasionally misleading.
Source: startribune.com
Photo Credit: GettyImages-zhuda
Categories: Minnesota, Crops, Weather