Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

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It’s getting a little droughty out there again, Minnesota. 

Dry lawns and crunchy leaves underfoot are tangible signs that much of Minnesota is trending toward drought once again. 

Rivers, ponds and lakes are at some of the lowest levels we’ve seen during this warm season. A soggy lush green spring and early summer has faded into a crisp, dry autumn landscape once again. It’s been an unmistakable trend in recent years.

 shows moderate drought now covers 12 percent of Minnesota up from just 3 percent last week. 

Check out the map at the top of this post and the “abnormally dry” zone. What I like to call pre-drought has grown to more than half of Minnesota at 57 percent!

Most of northern and southwestern Minnesota is now trending toward drought.

Rainfall totals across Minnesota have been several inches below normal for the past couple of months. Much of north-central Minnesota has received very little rain in the past 30 days.

Forecast models suggest very little rainfall in the drought zones of northern Minnesota through next week. We may get a little more in the south. 

The map below shows the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model precipitation output through next Thursday.

We typically see more organized widespread precipitation systems spin through Minnesota as we get deeper into the cold season in late October and November. These systems can recharge soils, lakes, and rivers before the ground freezes up in December.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Our prolonged dry weather pattern across Minnesota is causing drought areas to expand in this week’s drought update. 

National Drought Mitigation Center

Observed precipitation over the past 30 days

Midwest Regional Climate Center.

European (ECMWF) model precipitation output

Getting droughty again: Drought expands across northern Minnesota

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