Moderate drought now covers 22% of Minnesota according to this week’s drought monitor, up from 18% last week. At the same time, 64% of the state is considered abnormally dry, an increase from 62% last week.
No changes in Wisconsin, with 10% of the state experiencing moderate drought and 69% classified as abnormally dry.
The yellow area shows a one-class degradation in the drought monitor category over the past seven days, from October 14, 2025, to October 21, 2025.
Northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin have been much drier than usual over the past 30 days, even with the rain events in recent weeks. Unfortunately, those rainfalls just haven’t amounted to much for most of the region.
Over the past 30 days, precipitation has been only about 25% to 50% of the normal levels across much of the Northland, with slightly higher amounts observed from International Falls westward.
Precipitation anomalies for Duluth
Month to date: -1.79″ below normal
Since September 1st: -2.74″ below normal
Since January 1st: -8.82″ below normal
The next several days look mostly dry in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin; however, there is a bundle of energy that is forecast to dive southeastward out of southern Manitoba on Friday into early Saturday morning, and that disturbance could produce a few light showers over parts of the Northland, but no widespread or significant rains are expected.
NAM 500mb vorticity forecast valid 7 AM Friday to 7 AM Saturday.
Looking ahead to early next week, there’s a chance of rain across the Northland, but computer models have been trending this system farther south. This isn’t surprising, considering a ridge is expected to develop near or east of our area early next week.
The amounts shown on the map below could certainly trend lower in the coming days as the computer models continue to get a better handle on the pattern.
Leave a Reply