February 24th Drought Monitor.

Drought has been a continued to be a developing story here in Southeastern Minnesota since late last summer, and it is starting to become a real concern. This winter so far has brought little to no improvement in our deficit which in most areas it continues to build. According to the drought monitor above, Most of Dodge, Southwestern Goodhue and Western Mower counties are in severe drought effecting areas like Dodge Center, Pine Island and Austin In these areas most places are between 8 and 10″ below normal for water precip. Moderate drought covers the rest of Mower, Western Olmstead, Fillmore and Wabasha counties and, Central Goodhue counties effecting Cannon Falls, Rochester, Preston and Spring Valley Most areas here are between 7 and 8″ below normal. The rest of the area is in slight drought meaning around 2-3″ below normal accept that far southeastern part of Winona County which has escaped all drought completely.

Photo of backyard grass February  23th 2012

Here in Rochester the airport is 8 inches below normal from where we should be in water precipitation since May 1st. Looking at my data for the winter so far, we are behind by more then 20 inches in snowfall. Where we should have received around 40 inches of snowfall by now, we have only gotten 18.60″ so far since November, and only 3.00″ of water has come out of it, no more then 3 tenths at a time. It has been over 5 months since I have seen Precip that has amounted to at least an inch.The effects of drought have been very little becuase of the time of year, rivers and lakes could really be seeing it this spring if they do not received the normal amount snowmelt water they typically do. We could also really use spring moisture so farmers can grow crops. Hopefully with the pattern turning more active lately we can get some moisture in our region, which is very much needed.

More information about the drought can be found at NWS in La  Crosse drought page