Central Minnesota Mostly Rated As Abnormally Dry

(KNSI) – All of Sherburne County and most of Stearns have been bumped into the first drought stage, D0, or abnormally dry.

Conditions are watched by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Drought Monitor. At this point, grass may begin to brown, but crops are not in any danger. National Weather Service Senior Hydrologist Craig Schmidt says even severe drought has yet to cause problems near the Chanhassen office.

“For the most part, I will say that even in this area the crops are doing pretty well. They’ve been able to tap into some deeper moisture in the soil, so they’re not doing too bad. That would really take probably one more drought level for us to start to see some problems with crops on a larger scale.”

Schmidt has some words of caution, though. It doesn’t take long for conditions to shift to more severe drought stages.

“For the most part you can start to move in between [stages] within I’d say a two to three week time period. If we just stay completely dry over that time and the soil continues to dry out, even more, you know the crops are taking what moisture is in the soil.”

Schmidt says models expect the rest of the summer to play out under similar conditions.

“We’re not in a pattern that is very conducive to being very wet. We’re kind of in a dry northwest flow with this ridge that’s over us. We will see occasional thunderstorms move through, but they’re pretty hit and miss.”

Several areas surrounding the Twin Cities are already at D2, or severe drought. Schmidt doesn’t expect a change in the weather pattern until closer to fall at the earliest.

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