Weather Blog for Duluth and the Northland

Drought continues to worsen across the majority of Minnesota. In fact, the latest drought monitor this week now has a small portion of Minnesota in Exceptional Drought, the worse category in the drought monitor.

• 7% of Minnesota is in D4 or Exceptional Drought (dark red), this is up from 0% last week.
• 42% of Minnesota is in D3 or Extreme Drought (red), this is up from 35% last week.
• 77% of Minnesota is in D2 or Severe Drought (orange), this is down from 78% last week.
• 95% of Minnesota is in D1 or Moderate Drought, this is down from 97% last week.
• 98% of Minnesota is Abnormally Dry, this is down from 99% last week.

Drought continues to improve this week in Wisconsin.

• 2% of Wisconsin is in D2 or Severe Drought (orange), this is unchanged from last week.
• 18% of Wisconsin is in D1 or Moderate Drought (light orange), this is dowm from 23% last week.
• 31% of Wisconsin is Abnormally Dry (yellow), this is down from 37% last week.

• 1% of the Midwest is in D4 or Exceptional Drought (dark red), this is up from 0% last week.
• 7% of the Midwest is in D3 or Extreme Drought (red), this is up from 6% last week.
• 17% of the Midwest is in D2 or Severe Drought (orange), this is unchanged from last week.
• 25% of the Midwest is in D1 or Moderate Drought (light orange), this is down from 26% last week.
• 38% of the Midwest is Abnormally Dry (yellow), this is up from 34% last week.

• 14% of North Dakota is in D4 or Exceptional Drought (dark red), this is up from 13% last week.
• 73% of North Dakota is in D3 or Extreme Drought (red), this is up from 60% last week.
• 96% of North Dakota is in D2 or Severe Drought (orange), this is down from 97% last week.
• 100% of North Dakota is in Moderate Drought and is Abnormally Dry, both are unchanged from last week.

USDA Topsoil Moisture for the weekly period ending August 8, 2021.

Red=Very Dry
Yellow=Dry

All of northeast Minnesota needs an additional 6 to as much as 12 inches of precipitation to eliminate the ongoing drought, while much of northwest Wisconsin needs an additional 3 to 6 inches of precipitation.

Precipitation totals over the last 30 days were only 25-50% of normal (red/orange colors) across northeast Minnesota, and from 50-70% of normal in far northern Wisconsin (South Shore areas) to as high as 130-200% of normal (blue/purple colors) across southern portions of northwest Wisconsin, or from around Siren toward the Hayward and Winter areas.

Tim