Drought conditions in Minnesota slowly improving
MINNEAPOLIS — The ongoing drought across most of Minnesota continues to improve slowly.
This week's drought update shows improvement for central and southern Minnesota as well as central Wisconsin. However, there are a few pockets where it's still abnormally dry from Marshall southward and south of Eau Claire. Moderate drought continues east of Austin too.
Unfortunately, the moderate and severe drought grew a little bit across northern Minnesota — mainly from Brainerd northwest to Bemidji and beyond.
The storm on April 16 brought more than 2 inches of rain west of the metro and north of Winona. The half-inch or so that fell farther north wasn't enough to help.
The NEXT Weather forecast is calling for plenty more rain, certainly in the next few days. By next Tuesday, most of us will see another 1-2 inches of rain in the gauges, allowing for even more improvements.
Even beyond that, there is more good news. The Climate Prediction Center outlook into early May is also calling for wetter than average conditions.