Weekly Update: Drought Conditions Improve for Central Minnesota

UNDATED (WJON News) -- The drought conditions in Minnesota continue to improve.

The latest update released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor says most of central Minnesota now has adequate moisture levels. To the north of St. Cloud, counties like Morrison and Todd are still abnormally dry.

U.S. Drought Monitor

Southern Minnesota still has some areas that are listed as abnormally dry. The driest conditions are in the northern part of the state.

The state's Abnormally Dry area improved to 74 percent this week compared to 87 percent last week. The Moderate Drought area has not changed much at 43 percent this week compared to 44 percent last week. The Severe Drought area actually worsened to 13 percent up from 11 percent.

St. Cloud has officially had 3.09 inches of rain so far in April, which is more than an inch above normal for the month so far. For the year to date, we've had 6 inches of precipitation, which is an inch above normal.

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The drought conditions should continue to improve with widespread rain in the forecast for much of Minnesota starting Friday and lasting through Monday.

Climate Prediction Center

The Climate Prediction Center says we should expect to see a wetter-than-normal weather pattern for the next few weeks.

Climate Prediction Center