99 Percent of Minnesota is Now in a Drought

UNDATED (WJON News) -- Almost the entire state of Minnesota is now in a drought.

Thursday's weekly update from the U.S. Drought Monitor says 99 percent of Minnesota is in at least a Moderate Drought, up from 85 percent last week. Just the far tip of the Arrowhead region is not in a drought, but they are listed as abnormally dry.

U.S. Drought Monitor

The Severe Drought is impacting 62 percent, up from 55 percent last week.

The Extreme Drought area is up to 19 percent, three percent higher than a week ago.

And, the Exceptional Drought area remains at just over one percent.

While the report comes out on Thursday morning, the rainfall numbers are as of Tuesday, so any rain that fell since Tuesday won't be accounted for until next week, so the heavy rain the fell in Duluth Tuesday night isn't factored into this report.

Here in St. Cloud, we've had just .07 of an inch of rain halfway through the month of September. We're 1.36 inches below normal so far for the month.

We've still had less than eight inches of rain in St. Cloud going all the way back to late April, less than half the amount we normally have.

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For the year to date, St. Cloud has had 17.91 inches of precipitation. There's still three-and-half-months left, but right now we're sitting at the third driest year on record.

Climate Prediction Center

Some much-needed rain could be on the way. There is rain in the forecast for Central Minnesota from Thursday night into Friday morning. Also, the Climate Prediction Center is calling for above-normal rainfall in Minnesota next week.

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