Part of Minnesota Now in an “Extreme Drought’

UNDATED -- Almost the entire state is now considered to either be in a drought or at least abnormally dry.

The update Thursday from the U.S. Drought Monitor says four percent is now in an Extreme Drought, up from zero percent last week.

Eleven percent of the state is in a Severe Drought, up from four percent a week ago.

The Moderate Drought area is up to 35 percent this week compared to 22 percent last Thursday.

And the Abnormally Dry area covers 77 percent of the state, up from 54 percent last week.

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Here in St. Cloud, we've officially had just .04 inches of rain so far in October, which is .46 inches below normal.  For the fall months of September and October combined, we're at 2.27 inches of rain, 1.24 inches below normal.  However, for the year-to-date, we're still about four inches above normal for precipitation.

The latest forecast calls for little to no rain over the next several days.