Worsening drought, and a look at future rain chances, plus more heat on the way

Today’s Drought Monitor update shows increasing drought across the state of Minnesota and Wisconsin (NOTE: “The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration” ( found here: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx )).

Now nearly the entire state of Minnesota and Wisconsin are abnormally dry, with pockets of moderate drought (a step worse than abnormally dry). Most of the metro apart form the south metro are now abnormally dry, as well as the North Shore. Right now the arrowhead of Minnesota including the North Shore is dealing with critical fire weather conditions today. Any fires that develop have the potential to spread rapidly.

I do have some good news. We’re seeing some changes in our weather pattern tonight into the weekend. This means increasing humidity levels west to east overnight into Friday. That will help a little with our fire weather risk. Spotty showers and t’storms are possible across far west-central and southwestern MN tomorrow, but the more likely chance for rain will be Friday night into Saturday with a cold from moving entering northern Minnesota and tracking southward. Much of the state could see near 0.25″ of rainfall, locally more where we have a storm or two. Temperatures are comfortable in the low-80s Saturday. Dry skies and highs in the mid-70s return by Sunday. Enjoy the comfortable weekend forecast, because we end up with some heat returning next week!