Drought — Northern Aitkin, Minnesota

2023-09-01 to 2023-09-30 · Northern Aitkin, Minnesota

Event narrative

The northern portion of Aitkin County saw a mix of D3 Moderate Drought and D2 Severe Drought to begin the month. D2 Severe Drought covered the northern half of northern Aitkin County with D3 Extreme Drought across the southern half. Lingering dry conditions from August led to the expansion of D3 Extreme Drought across the remainder of northern Aitkin County along with the introduction of a small area of D4 Exceptional Drought in the far southeastern corner of northern Aitkin County with the update on the 5th. Rainfall for the month was around 1 to 3 inches above normal with much of it occurring over the latter half of the month. This led to a reduction in the area of D3 Extreme Drought with the update on the 19th in northeastern areas followed by a complete removal of D4 Exceptional Drought and D3 Extreme Drought across the area. While most of the area remained in D2 Severe Drought, a small area of D1 Moderate Drought was introduced in the northeastern corner of the county. No additional changes were noted over the last few days of the month.

Wider weather episode

Drought conditions persisted across northeastern Minnesota to begin September with D3 Extreme Drought stretching from the Brainerd Lakes area into the I-35 corridor. Two heavy rainfall events impacted the region during the month leading to many areas receiving 200 to 300 percent of normal rainfall for the month, especially in areas seeing the worst of the drought conditions. This led to drought improvement across much of the region with D3 Extreme Drought becoming confined to northern Cass County by the end of the month as much of the North Shore and Arrowhead improved to D0 Abnormally Dry.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1141233. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.