Exceptional drought conditions eliminated in Minnesota, extreme drought a fraction of last week’s report

The rain fell where it was most needed across Minnesota throughout the past week. Thursday’s report from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows there are no longer any areas experiencing exceptional drought in the state, and the amount of area considered to be in extreme drought is down to a third of what was reported last week.

According to the new report, the percentage of land in an extreme drought across Minnesota is at 8.03%. Last week, that number was 26.07% which was the highest percentage of extreme drought in the state in two years.

Exceptional drought conditions are nonexistent in the state, and just over 2.8% of Minnesota was in that category as of last week.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, parts of the west and northwest metro saw more than six inches of rain from Saturday morning through Tuesday, while the southwest metro and points east saw anywhere from 2-3.99″ of rainfall during that timeframe.

An interactive map showing rainfall totals can be found by CLICKING HERE. Any rain that fell before 7 a.m. Tuesday was included in this week’s drought report.

Although Minnesota received much-needed rainfall, there is still a long way to go before drought conditions completely clear up – the entire state is still seeing extremely dry conditions or worse, with 82.65% in a moderate drought and 46.65% in a severe drought.

In Wisconsin, there is a similar story – exceptional drought conditions were eliminated after nearly 3.3% of the state was in that category last week. Extreme drought is also down to a fraction of what it was – that level dropped from 24.27% to 6.77% and is located primarily in the southwest corner and in some of north-central Wisconsin.

Roughly 37.7% of the state is in a severe drought, while 80.86% is in a moderate drought. Barron, Dunn, Pierce, St. Croix, and Polk counties are all seeing moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions, and Burnett County is listed as having moderate and severe conditions.

The latest seven-day forecast shows a chance of rain Tuesday and Wednesday of next week in the Twin Cities area, however, there are some rain and storm chances across the state going into the weekend. CLICK HERE for an interactive radar and HERE for the seven-day forecast.