Drought Conditions in Minnesota Ease, But Not Over

UNDATED (WJON News) -- Our rain over the past several days has helped the drought conditions across the state, but we are not out of the woods yet.

Thursday's weekly update from the U.S. Drought Monitor says no one is in an Exceptional Drought anymore after three percent of the state was last week.

U.S. Drought Monitor

The Extreme Drought area is now eight percent, down from 26 percent. Eastern Stearns, and Western Benton and Sherburne counties are still in an Extreme Drought.

The Severe Drought area is at 47 percent, down from 64 percent.

And, the Moderate Drought is impacting 83 percent of the state, down from 95 percent.

Abnormally Dry conditions are still covering 100 percent of the state.

St. Cloud has now had 1.77 inches of rain this month, with almost all of it coming since last Friday night. However, we're still an inch below normal for the month. For the entire year, St. Cloud has had 19.61 inches of precipitation, which is 3.75 inches below normal.

Get our free mobile app

Climate Prediction Center

The National Weather Services says more thunderstorms are likely Friday with locally heavy rain possible in central and western Minnesota. The Climate Prediction Center says a wetter-than-normal weather pattern will continue for Minnesota into the first week of October.