Drought expands across Minnesota; 4th driest meteorological summer for Twin Cities

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor update for Minnesota shows what we expected. The area of drought in Minnesota is slowly expanding.

Here are some quick stats on the current drought status in Minnesota.

• This was the fourth driest June and July on record for the Twin Cities. (Records date back to the 1870s)

• 34 percent of Minnesota is now either classified as abnormally dry or in drought

• Overall drought area in Minnesota increased to 14 percent from seven percent last week

• Most of Twin Cities area is now in severe drought status

Rainfall deficits growing

For June and July, Twin Cities rainfall was 6.33 inches below average. Here is a look at rainfall trends over the past two weeks.

Crops and lawns are showing some stress in parts of central and southern Minnesota. But this week’s Minnesota Crop Report shows 63 percent of corn is in good to excellent condition in Minnesota.

Weekend rainfall?

There are still signs of possibly significant rainfall this weekend. Forecast models indicated slow-moving storms may dump local multi-inch rainfall in some locations across southern Minnesota.