Well-distributed rains erase (most of) Minnesota’s drought
Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
Even before Lamberton got 1.6 inches of rain overnight on May 23, it had reached eight inches of moisture in the top five feet of the soil profile—a mark above the historical average. The same can be said for many locations around the state.
“We are out of the drought for the time being,” said Prof. Jeff Strock, University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center in Lamberton. But he cautioned, “I say ‘for the time being’ [because] as we know the weather can change on a dime. Since we started measuring soil moisture in April of this year, the amount in the five-foot soil profile has been above the long-term average. Somewhat unexpectedly we received 1.6 inches of rain overnight. We were forecast to get about 0.4 inches. We have small ‘lakes’ in our ag fields now. We don’t need any more rain any time soon.”
Lamberton is far from being an anomaly, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Climatology Office.
“Over the past two months, we have been getting precipitating weather patterns coming through every three to five days,” Climatologist Kenny Blumenfeld reported. “There have been a couple of periods in there where we have had to wait a little longer. The majority of the state has had abundant precipitation during that time… we started March with 40 percent of the state [in] some form of drought. That number has dropped way down now…we are down to just under 8.5 percent in moderate drought (the lowest measurable level).”
The rains have been well-timed in terms of planting activity. Farmers in Minnesota have planted 89% of their corn acres as of May 26, according to the latest USDA crop progress report.
Some areas of the state have received ten inches of rain in the past 60 days—typically four or five more inches of rain than is usually received in this period, according to Blumenfeld. However, this has not made up for the long-term shortage of precipitation that has developed over the past four growing seasons, 2020-2023.
“We won’t know that we have really ended that kind of drought-dominated period, at least until we get this long-term moisture deficit erased,” Blumenfeld said. “Just to put that in perspective, the typical location in Minnesota is short ten inches of precipitation, going back to early 2020. That’s substantial. In southern Minnesota that’s a little over a quarter, maybe a third, of a normal year’s precipitation. In northern Minnesota it’s an even larger portion—maybe closer to 40% of normal annual precipitation.”
The most immediate sign that we have reached that full recharge is when lakes return to historical levels.
“We hope, for the sake of the farmers, that we make that up. But not in one month!” Blumenfeld said.
