Info courtesy US Drought Monitor: Considering only a handful of days this April without precipitation, this comes as little surprise, and is very nice to see. As you can see by today’s updated drought graphic above, 6 counties in southeast Minnesota have been removed from even abnormally dry conditions.
Posted under Drought
This post was written by Randy on April 25, 2013
It has been a long time since we have talked about something being above average other than the temperature. The February of 2013 is changing that though. Through February so far we have had 15″ of snow fall at the Rochester International Airport. That was jump started by day after day after day of Clippers to start the month and then recently with the biggest snowstorm we have had in the last two winters. Climatologically speaking, February is the least snowy of the snowy months, but during the Winter of 12/13 it has been the snowiest. Not only has it been the snowiest this Winter, we have actually cracked the top 10 snowiest for the month of February. Here’s the list of five through ten.
In the coming days we will have a chance to climb up this list a little higher. We are watching a large system that will feature the heaviest snow staying well to the south and east of our area, but come Tuesday and Wednesday, we will have a chance to be scraped by this system.
This is how the storm will look on Monday evening. This system will likely bring a full blown Blizzard to parts of the plain states. The track again will stay away from us, most likely putting Chicago in the bulls eye after slamming portions of Kansas and Missouri with over a foot of snow. Our chances will be Tuesday and Wednesday and the intensity will be MUCH lighter. With that said, a jog in the track northward would change things drastically so we are still monitoring the track of this one.
February has definitely brought active weather back to Minnesota. Hopefully this stretch will continue to help replenish area streams and rivers. The recent liquid will help somewhat to do that, but we need this active weather to continue into spring to help put a dent in the drought since the ground is still frozen. Fingers crossed, but definitely a positive sign going forward!
Posted under climate, Drought, history, minnesota, Records, weather, winter, winter weather
This post was written by jkegges on February 24, 2013
We’ve already had our first measurable snow this season when 0.1″ fell on November 12th. It has been a much longer time since we’ve had 1″ or more snow fall on one day in Rochester – since February 20th to be exact. That’s 288 days, and we’re currently on day 289, and unless something apocalyptic happens today, it’s not going to snow an inch or more by Midnight.
Here is the list of the longest stretches of consecutive days without an inch or more snow falling in Rochester. Thanks to my friend Jeff at NWS La Crosse for digging up this data for me. Note the numbers for the 2 and 3 spot, they’re separated by only one day due to a snowfall on january 12th, 1968. But for that one day of 1″ or more snow, it would have been an epic stretch of little snow. 1967-68 also happens to be the winter of least snow on record for Rochester.
343 1960-03-12 through 1961-02-17
317 1968-01-13 through 1968-11-24
297 1967-03-21 through 1968-01-11
292 2012-02-21 through 2012-12-08
290 2010-02-16 through 2010-12-02
285 2001-03-13 through 2001-12-22
284 1999-03-10 through 1999-12-18
282 1990-02-24 through 1990-12-02
276 1958-03-06 through 1958-12-06
271 1941-03-16 through 1941-12-11
Period of record: 1893-01-01 to 2012-12-03
Posted under Drought, Rochester, Snow Totals, winter
This post was written by Randy on December 5, 2012
While there has been a 1% decrease in drought conditions in the Midwest Region, drought has now expanded from 98% to 100% of Minnesota. Iowa, which is facing one of its worst droughts on record, continues to worsen as well. 100% of Iowa has been in drought for quite some time now, but areal percentage of Extreme Drought has expanded nearly 10%.
Drought conditions are expected to persist or expand through December.
Posted under Drought
This post was written by Randy on October 4, 2012
There’s a ton of information on drought conditions on the US Drought Monitor page and Local Drought Page. I’ve cherry picked a few, key pieces here. The first, courtesy NWS La Crosse, I found the most dramatic. Check out the rainfall deficits at local stations since August 2011. Rochester’s rainfall deficit is 14.39″, Grand Meadow’s is 15.37″, and Austin’s is a whopping 18.28″.
Drought has become slightly less expansive across the Midwest region in the past week.
Iowa is still in dire straits in regards to drought with little change possible as the entire state is in severe to extreme drought, although Exceptional Drought has increased…which is bad.
And drought has increased more significantly in Minnesota. Only 1.92% of Minnesota is not in drought.
Posted under Drought
This post was written by Randy on September 27, 2012
The US Drought Monitor was updated this past Thursday. As you’d expect, drought continues to spread and worsen throughout the upper Midwest. 93.58% of the Midwest is now at some level of drought, from abnormally dry (D0) to exceptional drought (D4), an increase from 88.31% last week. Drought conditions in Minnesota alone have increased from 62.8% of the state last week to 83.5% this week.
Posted under Drought
This post was written by Randy on September 15, 2012
Sources:
US Drought Monitor
NWS La Crosse Drought Page
For specific, local effects of the drought, check out the NWS La Crosse Drought Page linked above.
Moderate to severe drought continues in our southern tier of counties in southeast to south-central MN
…and Iowa is still in rough shape despite last week’s rainfall with 100% of the state suffering from drought.
Posted under Drought, rainfall
This post was written by Randy on August 30, 2012
The latest drought monitor has been released and although we’ve received some nice, soaking showers in the past couple of days, very little has changed in the local drought headlines. Much of north Iowa remains in the Severe Drought category of the drought monitor suggesting that crop loss may be inevitable for a large part of the local area and that only the longest period of wet weather would bring relief from the dryness. Meanwhile, on the Minnesota side of the border there are some spots in Severe Drought while a large area is fortunate enough to be only slightly dry and not even listed in a drought monitor category. For instance, Rochester is not officially in a drought category, but there is a rainfall deficit of more than two and a half inches and given a week or two of persistent dryness, we could slip into the Abnormally Dry category or some form of drought category so we’re still hoping for rain to keep things green and healthy. The rainfall forecast is looking somewhat favorable for the area as we head into the weekend because a storm system is going to bring scattered showers and thunderstorms tonight and through a large portion of tomorrow with a quarter to possibly half an inch of rainfall possible. That wouldn’t be a drought “buster,” but it would be a start. Beyond that, we’ll have cooler weather for a couple of days before smaller rain chances slowly creep back into the forecast later next week.
The majority of our area remains dry while the driest conditions are well to the south in the region.
The southern tier of counties in Minnesota and southwestern part of the state is the driest while the rest is only slightly drier than normal.
The entire state of Iowa continues to suffer through our summer long drought with some locations as much as eight inches below normal for the year in rainfall.
Posted under Drought
This post was written by tschmidt on August 3, 2012
Bottom line: it’s still very dry out there. For our viewing area, Goodhue, Wabasha, Dodge, and Olmsted counties are in the best shape and drought conditions have improved – not worsened – according to the latest US Drought Monitor report. An active pattern over the last week and a half has helped some of us out tremendously. However, moderate to now severe drought conditions have expanded throughout southern Minnesota and northwestern Minnesota, and for those in our viewing area it’s primarily south of I-90.
If you look at the regional drought image below, you can see that areas of “extreme” drought has doubled in the past 7 days across the Midwest. It’s not only the lack of rain leading to this expansion, but the intense heat over the course of this month which is leading to rapid expansion of drought.
Minnesota Drought Conditions
click to expand image
Regional Drought Conditions
How much rain do we need to get out of this drought?
Posted under Drought
This post was written by Randy on July 26, 2012
Even after a stormy Monday night and Tuesday morning in much of the local area, we still find ourselves in a pretty sizable rainfall deficit for the month and season across the region. While Rochester officially measured 1.80″ of fresh rainfall in that heavy line of showers Tuesday, we still have a slight deficit and could use some more. The southwestern half of the local area completely missed out on those showers and in some cases the deficit is significant, something along the lines of four to eight inches below normal for the year, especially in northern Iowa where crops are suffering and an extreme drought continues.
Rochester closed the seasonal deficit to less than two inches for summer 2012, and less than an inch for July.
The official rainfall deficit for the month in Rochester today is 0.42″ while we’re 1.34″ below normal for the year and 1.85″ below normal for summer (since June 1st.) Mason City, meanwhile, has a rainfall deficit for the season of 5.94″ and 7.03″ for the entire year. They’ve measured a mere 0.14″ of rain in the entire month of July!
We’re keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for some rain in the area, especially for those locations in northern Iowa that are in danger of losing their crops and there appear to be two decent chances in the next couple of days. The first opportunity for rain will be along and even just behind a cold front that is approaching from the west today. There will be chances for thunderstorms later this afternoon and evening with that front, but probably not enough to make a huge dent in that enormous deficit, unfortunately. Temperatures ahead of that front will be in the low to mid 90s in Minnesota and in the upper 90s in northern Iowa today with heat indices in the triple digits for much of the area, but things will cool significantly behind the front for tomorrow and the upcoming weekend. Another, weaker, disturbance tomorrow evening will bring a few light showers and thunderstorms to the local area. After this, we’ll likely have to wait for light rain late in the weekend and early next week.
In the meantime, there is a chance for some strong to severe thunderstorms today with the arrival of that cold front in the region.
Large hail and damaging wind gusts will be possible in the thunderstorms that are expected to develop today and tonight along an approaching cold front.
This post was written by tschmidt on July 25, 2012
