A drought continues to plague large parts of Northern Minnesota, despite recent storms bringing rainfall to the region.
According to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor as of Thursday, July 9, 11% of Minnesota was in a severe drought. This includes almost all of Cass, Itasca, Hubbard and Wadena counties, as well as portions of Crow Wing, Aitkin, Koochiching and Beltrami.
Curtis Riganti, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center, said there are a lot of factors that contribute to classifying drought.
“What has that precipitation or lack of precipitation done to stream flow?” Riganti said. “What are the temperatures like? What impact of dry or wet conditions and warmer or dry and cooler than normal conditions had on soil moisture [and] groundwater?”
In severe drought, water levels are much lower than average and crop loss is likely.
When a significant portion of a watershed is in a severe drought, the watershed is put in a drought warning phase. The Mississippi River headwaters basin is currently in this phase. During the warning phase, public water suppliers are to limit water use to no more than 50% above January levels. This is to protect drinking water supplies and natural resources.
The warning phase does not require a mandatory ban. However, it can often lead to local public utilities asking residents to reduce their unnecessary water use. Both Brainerd and Grand Rapids have asked their residents to do this.
Another 18% of Minnesota is in a moderate drought and 46% is in the pre-drought phase, classified as “abnormally dry conditions.”
If the trees are green and thunderstorms with heavy rain just hit the region, how can much of Northern Minnesota still be in a classified drought?
Waylon Glienke, a wetland specialist for the Itasca County Soil and Water Conservation District, said droughts don’t just reflect recent weather patterns.
“It’s been the past three weeks, we’ve been getting storms rolling through and people think everything’s back to normal,” Glienke said. “But in a greater scheme of things, it’s just — a pun intended here — a drop in the bucket as far as what we need for precipitation.”
He explains that the drought we are seeing isn’t just due to this month's or even this year's weather.
“For the past four years or so, we’ve been really low,” Glienke said. “When you start compounding the numbers, I’ve heard ... reports of we’re over 20 inches lacking in precipitation, that be snow, rain, whatever it be in the last four to five years. And that’s a pretty substantial amount of precipitation.”
Droughts bring with them a variety of effects. Some of those that likely come to mind are visibly dry plants and lower water levels. However, they can lead to other consequences.
Glienke said this can be seen locally with lake ecosystems.
“You got a lot of exposed area where the water typically is, [and] now it’s not,” Glienke said. “There’s new vegetation growing, so it’s becoming a new ecosystem there. And who knows what’s going to happen to that ecosystem once the water comes up.”
Droughts increase fire danger, leading to different burn restrictions being enacted. Droughts can increase shipping costs and squeeze supply chains, too, due to low water on rivers limiting navigation and shipping, according to the University of Minnesota Climate Adaption Partnership.
Droughts — while representing a lack of water themselves — can lead to further stress on water resources. This is due to crops, lawns and athletic fields needing more water during droughts, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The future for Northern Minnesota and its drought problem is not completely clear, but Rigante said the recent rainfall shouldn’t lead to too much hope.
“Based on the recent forecast product, I’m not sure that we’re likely to see significant improvement to drought conditions in that area beyond the rainfall we’ve seen recently,” Riganti said.
Glienke has a similar view.
“It’s going to take a lot for all these wetlands to get back to normal level, which then in turn act as good buffers for water quality, and then the lakes get back up, things to get back to what they typically run.”
Riganti explained in order for the region to see improvements, more than the occasional storm system is needed.
“What we would want to see is continued rainfall. It would be nice to get a — rather than like individual, kind of like intense thunderstorms, you want to see like slow, soaking rains over the region.”
To keep up to date with drought conditions in the region, you can visit the Minnesota DNR drought monitor overview page.
If you would like to report any drought conditions and effects you’ve seen in the area, you can go to the National Drought Mitigation Centers observations and reports survey.
