Extreme drought conditions reported in Twin Cities, SW Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS -- Parts of Minnesota are now under extreme drought conditions, after the driest September on record in the Twin Cities and sparse amounts of rain over the last week.
The area of severe drought also worsened across Minnesota and Wisconsin over the last week.
The Twin Cities didn't even get a quarter of an inch of rain in September; there were a few sprinkles, but rain totals were low compared to the average 3 inches of rain that usually falls during the month.
The warm start to fall has also exacerbated the impact of the drought; compared to if the state were experiencing cool, cloudy weather, the warmth has caused the soil to dry quickly. Farmers were already impacted by the drought over the summer - some said it was hard to grow vegetables like peppers, and apple orchards delayed their opening.
As we head into what is climatologically the driest part of the year, it'll be harder to make up the deficit because of a historical lack of moisture, caused by dry winter air.
Last year was also one of the worst droughts on record, with northern Minnesota experiencing the worst of the dry weather. This year though, it's the metro area and southwestern Minnesota that are under extreme drought conditions.
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Southern Minnesota could see some spotty showers on Thursday, but the rest of the state will stay dry. There's no widespread rain in sight over the next week.
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'It's Concerning': Minnehaha Creek and Falls run dry as Hennepin County enters "extreme drought" stage
MINNEAPOLIS – Minnehaha Creek, and the Minnehaha Falls, are dry.
It's cause for concern for the people in charge of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD).
"This is, I think maybe surreal," said MCWD's Tiffany Schaufler. "The duration of the drought this year is catching a lot of people off guard because it's been more intense in just the Twin Cities metro."
On Thursday, Hennepin County entered an "extreme drought" phase, thanks in part to the Twin Cities' driest September on record.
Several years back, Schaufler says the watershed saw 43 inches of rain in one year. This past month, they saw less than a quarter inch.
"Weather patterns used to be fairly predictable," she said. "Wet springs, dryer summers, dry falls. What we've experienced just the last couple of years is just very dry summers. What's happening is you're having way more evaporation, you're losing more of that water to evaporation than is falling from the sky, so you're just in a deficit."
The drought extends beyond areas of the creek in Minneapolis. In Victoria and
Minnestrista, near where the creek starts, things are also dry. Schaufler says while the creek is fed by the Gray's Bay Dam, a solution isn't as simple as opening it.
"At the end of the day you're given, as a water manager, what falls from the sky," she said.
The 2022 drought is really a continuation of 2021's drought, climatologist Pete Boulay says.
"We never fully recovered from the 2021 drought, so this drought is building on what happened last year. So lakes are going down. [Lake] Minnetonka is the lowest it's been in 10 years, White Bear Lake's the lowest it's been in six years, so we're just kind of compounding issues as we go further and further along," Boulay said. "Driest September on record is in the record books now. We'll see what October brings. Check back in about a month and we'll find out."
