Issued at 1:43 PM CDT, Thursday, October 4th
-Moderate Drought spreads into Northeast Minnesota, including the city of Duluth this week.
*Drought continues to worsen in Minnesota*
Drought Monitor as of October 2nd, 2012
Source: Climate Prediction Center
Minnesota:
*100% of the state is abnormally dry, up from 98% last week.
*96% of the state is in Moderate Drought, up from 77% last week.
*44% of the state is in Severe Drought, up from 35% last week.
*19% of the state is in Extreme Drought, up from 18% last week.
Note: Far Western Koochiching County is in severe to extreme drought as of October 2nd. The Southern 1/2 of Pine County is in severe drought.
Wisconsin:
*99% of the state is abnormally dry.
*78% of the state is in Moderate Drought, up from 61% last week.
*35% of the state remains in Severe Drought, unchanged from last week.
*8% of the state remains in Extreme Drought, unchanged from last week.
Note: The Western half of Burnett County is in Severe Drought as of October 2nd.
*Little change this week to how much additional precipitation is needed to get back to average in the Northland. 3-6″ in Northeast Minnesota and all of Northwest Wisconsin. Parts of Northern Minnesota need 9-12″ of additional precipitation, while portions of Northwest Minnesota would need 12-15″ of precip to get back to normal.
*The last 90 days (July 7-October 4) has had just 25-50% of it’s normal precipitation in most of Minnesota.
*The latest U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook released Today shows that the drought will likely persist in all but extreme Northeastern Minnesota and Northwest Minnesota. This is valid through December 31st, 2012.
Tim