The National Weather Service in Duluth has updated the drought monitor for the region this morning, and it doesn't look good. As wildfires burn near the Canadian border, we continue to see very dry conditions across the Northland. The entire state of Minnesota is at least "abnormally dry," and much of it is at least experiencing moderate drought.

 

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Wisconsin is dry as well, but in a little better shape than Minnesota. This week there isn't any areas of extreme drought, but Wisconsin could definitely benefit from some rain too.

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The weekly drought monitor is from the Univeristy of Nebraska-Lincoln in partnership with the USDA and NOAA. They update it weekly for the entire country, and give a brief summary of the regions.

In their Midwest section they call out our region specifically in Northern Minnesota along Lake Superior as being exceptionally dry with receiving little or no rain in the last week. That has expanded the extreme drought areas greatly.

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Minnesota now has 63% of it's pastures rated in poor to very poor condition. If you break it down by crops its 42% of spring wheat, 34% of oats, 33% of barley, 18% of corn, and 17% of soybeans in poor condition.

Some rain is expected Friday night, but not enough to make much of a difference. So far only a tenth of an inch is expected. It will be another dry and hot weekend in The Northland then, with some rain chances again Monday and Tuesday.

As a result of the dry conditions the Minnesota DNR has banned all burning permits and has a burning restriction in place. That means no fireworks, no campfires in remote or back country campsites, and campfires are only allowed in fire rings associated with campgrounds or private residences.

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