‘Unhealthy’ air quality expected in eastern Minnesota through Monday afternoon due to wildfire smoke

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The weather will soon get more active. That said, Sven Sundgaard 

 for you on the severe storm potential Friday and to wrap up the weekend in the morning version of Updraft. 

For Thursday afternoon, the three of us on the MPR Weather staff thought you might want to learn more about the expanding drought. We, in turn, wanted to learn from you. 

Let's start with the CMOR. That means Condition Monitoring Observer Reports. And 

 means the ground truth from what you all are seeing across Minnesota. 

In Duluth, we turn to an extremely knowledgeable observer who goes by “apanda,” who's been around for well over a decade. They report:

In addition, they say animals are struggling to find their own clean water and that creek gauges are extremely low. 

On Monday, “JE” reported in from the Twin Cities metro area. They said the drought has only been like this a couple of times and it's "fairly widespread. Areas without irrigation are turning very brown and soils are dry/dusty."

Thursday, a farmer in Murray County sent in this update. While the drought is not unheard of, they are concerned for late season harvesting: "Fair — Less than normal crop condition. Yield loss is a possibility, but the extent is unknown." As for livestock feeding issues: "Fair — Pastures are providing generally adequate feed but still less than normal for the time of year."

If you're wondering how to check these reports out or how to submit yourself, here is a 

To look across all of Minnesota, you may not see a ton of change across the broader Thursday drought report. Drought did expand into the Boundary Waters, not shocking given the fires. In St. Louis County, for example, severe drought (we also call it D2) effectively doubled. Outside of the broader Wilderness area, drought did not change much. 

That said, this is only one tool. We've had quite the dry turn of weather across the Twin Cities and other zones and that doesn't always show up in the following week drought monitor. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ben Cathey

Author

To look across all of Minnesota, you may not see a ton of change across the broader Thursday drought report. Drought did expand into the Boundary Waters — not shocking, given the fires.

Drought builds north, wraps up southeast

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