Above-average rainfall quells drought, swells rivers in Northern MN

Severe thunderstorms and showers brought a lot of rain to the Northland in the past two days, causing rivers and streams to rise and streets to flood.

The National Weather Service office in Duluth received a report of 4.95 inches of rain from the city of Marble in eastern Itasca County, the highest total of any location over two days. It's also the second-highest two-day total counted by the Duluth office this year. Winton, northeast of Ely, saw 4.23 inches, while 3.95 inches fell 10 miles northeast of Deer River and 3.92 inches in Hibbing.

Between 6 and 12 inches of water covered Ely roads with more rain on the way just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 23. Sherigan Street in downtown Ely flooded enough for Tenille Flegel from the Piragis Northwoods Company outfitters to float one of the store’s canoes.

"Usually that side road, right where you would enter into our outfitting area, floods pretty well and you're able to canoe it a little bit," Flegel said.

The store itself had a small amount of water intrusion, and Flegel said she heard of people’s basements flooding.

Rivers and streams across the region also reacted to the heavy rainfall. The Prairie River near Taconite rose 4 feet as of Thursday afternoon, which is more than double the depth it was a couple of days earlier. The St. Louis River near Scanlon also rose almost 4 feet. The Knife River near Two Harbors rose 3 feet but fell 2 feet already since Wednesday evening.

Since June 1, there's been quite a bit of rainfall on the Iron Range. The weather service said one of its volunteer observers near Mountain Iron has recorded 15.42 inches of rain, while a Marble observer counted 14.8 inches.

The latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows just a small portion of extreme northwestern Minnesota — less than 12% of the state's land mass — was experiencing moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. And the most recent data was as of Tuesday — before the heaviest rainfall this week.

While not as much rain fell in the northwest, long-range climate information from the National Weather Service stated that weather trends favor a risk of persistent heavy rainfall, with risks of flooding for the rest of this month and into the first week of August.

The wet summer drastically compares to a dry spring, when most of Northern Minnesota was under moderate to severe drought, exacerbating May's wildfires. Three months ago in April, just 18% of the state was not experiencing drought.