Climatologist: Minnesota in deepening drought as winter approaches
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Just ahead of meteorological winter, drought is worsening in Minnesota, according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday.
About 75 percent of the state is abnormally dry or in formal drought status. That's roughly 12 percent more than last week's report, and now includes the Twin Cities metro. There’s also a growing pocket of severe drought around Duluth.
To explain why that matters before the deep ground freezes and what the dryness could mean for springtime, state climatologist Luigi Romolo joined Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Listen to the conversation by clicking the player button above.
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Drought spread significantly in a week’s time in mid-November. Are you worried?
That’s a bit of a concern, because winter is our lock-up season where our soil moisture and our water typically gets frozen into a solid state. We’re kind of in hydrology purgatory until spring, and we don’t have a lot of opportunity to make up lost precipitation over the winter, because winter’s our driest season.
We’re behind on precipitation this fall, so the soil is already pretty dry, right?
Yes, particularly in the north-central part of the state, in and around Cass County, and to the east, with Carlton [County] and Pine County showing severe drought now.
Do years with little snowfall make for a dismal spring?
No. We’ve actually had a couple of springs save us from drought in the past. I think it was 2022 when we actually were able to come out of the drought because of the heavy rainfall that we got after the heavy snowfall in the wintertime.
If we get moisture now, is that what’s needed?
Correct. The more moisture that we get right now is better for the situation because it’s really hard for us to make up 3-4 inches with snow. In order to get 1 inch of rainfall equivalent in snow, we need 10 inches of snow. It’s really hard for us to do that in the wintertime. And then typically we will get a lot of snow in the spring, which helps us out, too.
Are there any mitigation efforts you recommend folks can do right now?
I don’t think it’s gotten to that point yet, but water conservation needs to be an all-the-time thing anyway. So just the regular practices of don’t run the water while you’re shaving, take reasonable-length showers and don’t water your grass in the rain.
Would it help to water trees?
Yeah, that would absolutely make some sense.
