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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Ben Cathey

Drought builds north, wraps up southeast

Mixed bag on the new Thursday drought report

new drought
The Thursday drought report picks up a little more severe drought in the Boundary Waters.
drought.gov

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The weather will soon get more active. That said, Sven Sundgaard has a terrific writeup 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 that means the ground truth from what you all are seeing across Minnesota.

30 day drought
This is the 30-day rainfall deficit, most notable in the Boundary Waters. Places like Rochester have actually come out of drought.
drought.gov

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

  • Wilting on annual flowers/crops/vegetables

  • Leaf scorch on annual flowers/crops/vegetables

  • Increased supplemental irrigation

  • Wilting on perennial flowers/shrubs

  • Dry lawn (browning in growth season)

  • Dusty/cracked soil

marsh river low
According to this hydrograph, which measures river flow and how it compares historically to other events, the Marsh River has effectively no discharge at the gauge.
USGS

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."

Livestock good
Minnesota's range and livestock numbers are still in shockingly good shape as of July 19, despite drought continuing to expand. Part of that is because the areas where livestock are most prevalent in Minnesota are not necessarily in the drought.
USDA

If you're wondering how to check these reports out or how to submit yourself, here is a zoomed-in view of the free federal product.

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.