The U.S. Drought Monitor Program of USDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency has officially designated northwestern, north-central, and east-central portions of Minnesota to be in a severe drought as of July 18th. Other regions of the state are designated as moderate drought and the southern most counties are shown as abnormally dry. See web site....

drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

The drought was further enhanced by the recent period of hot temperatures which motivated state agencies to call a meeting of the Minnesota Drought Task Force, a group formed in the 1980s to enhance coordination and communication among public and private sector groups. The DNR Division of Waters serves as host for these meetings. Historically drought has been shown to severely impact the state's agriculture, forest resources, water supply, water quality, river navigation, tourism, and utilities (especially power supply). All of these interests have a stake in discussing ways to mitigate drought impacts.

USDA Farm Service Agency already reports that 14 counties are prepared to petition for federal emergency disaster declarations as crop production has been dramatically reduced. Most of these counties are in northwestern and central Minnesota. There is speculation that the number of counties seeking such assistance may double as the drought is expected to hang on into August, and perhaps beyond.

The USGS reports that the volume of flow on many rivers in the state is in the 20th percentile category or lower. On some rivers flows are in the lowest 10 percent of historical measurements for this time of year and on portions of the St Croix River, the flow has never been lower in July than it is now. Historical flow data on Minnesota's watersheds are available from the USGS web site....

water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/?m=real&w=map&r=mn

The low flow situation on Minnesota's watersheds favors more development of algal blooms, slows the transition times for boats and barges through locks and dams, and threatens power generation by companies that rely on water intake from the rivers. It is expected that water conservation practices will be widely emphasized around the state, and further that the DNR will be suspending permits for a number of surface water appropriators, though not as many as were done in 1988.

In addition to the big fire in the BWCA which has already consumed over 34 square miles of landscape, the threat of wildfires remains very high in much of central and northern Minnesota. For the year to date there have been over 1200 wildfires in the state. Fire restrictions and wildfire locations can be found at....

www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/fire/index.html

The ongoing drought situation can be monitored on our climate web site....

www.climate.umn.edu

Of special interest are the Climate Journal Section or the Drought Information Resources Section. These are frequently updated.

While the Drought Task Force met on Wednesday this week (July 19), the southern third of Minnesota was receiving beneficial rainfall from a series of thunderstorms. Though most amounts were less than an inch, some areas picked up 1-3 inches including Waseca 2.37", Fairmont 2.83", Owatonna 2.12", Winnebago 2.03", Grand Meadow 2.39", and Rochester 1.83". Unfortunately much of central and northwestern Minnesota which desperately needed the rainfall was left high and dry. More on this, plus a radar depiction of the rainfall can be found at....

www.climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/rain060719.htm

The Drought Task Force noted that the NOAA Climate Prediction Center outlook for the region favors persistence of drought conditions into the fall season as temperatures are expected to average above normal during the period. The Task Force will continue to meet every two weeks. Educational programs related to coping with drought and drought impacts are likely to gain increasing priority over the coming weeks.

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