Drought conditions improve across Minnesota, slightly worsen in Wisconsin

The latest drought report shows small improvements have been made across the state of Minnesota during the past week, however, some parts of Wisconsin have become slightly drier.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the Arrowhead region of Minnesota saw the most improvement, with no drought conditions reported in much of Cook, Lake and St. Louis Counties. Currently, 10.1% of the state is in that category, including the eastern border of Washington County, a large part of Winona County, as well as nearly all of Big Stone County.

Meanwhile, 89.9% of the state is in abnormally dry conditions, an improvement from last week’s report of 93.79%. In addition, moderate drought conditions decreased ever so slightly from last Thursday’s report – down from 43.67% to 43.65%.

Severe drought conditions dropped from 20.66% to 18.01%. However, extreme drought conditions are still listed across the southern part of Mower and Fillmore Counties and cover 0.25% of the land, the exact same percentage as last week’s report.

Across the border in Wisconsin, conditions dipped the other direction, but not by much.

Extreme drought levels stayed the same at 0.26% from last week, however, all other levels worsened. Severe drought crept up from 15.95% to 16.02% and moderate drought increased from 33.99% to 36.22%. Abnormally dry conditions continued that trend, going up to 66.41% from last week’s 66.36%.

Areas experiencing no drought conditions dropped from 33.64% to 33.59%.

The latest seven-day forecast shows no precipitation chances and temperatures in the 60s by early next week. CLICK HERE for an interactive radar and HERE for the latest forecast.