Drought in Northern St. Louis, Minnesota

Much of the area was under D2 Severe Drought with an area of D3 Extreme Drought across southeastern third of the northern part of St. Louis County to begin the month. Rainfall for the month ended up around 1 to 2 inches below normal, but around an inch of accumulation during the first two weeks of the month led to a slight reduction in the area of D3 Extreme Drought. Little rainfall was observed over the last half of the month and no further improvements were observed.

Drought conditions persisted across northeastern Minnesota during the month of October. Precipitation varied across the region with western areas from the Brainerd Lakes area northward to International Falls receiving slightly above normal precipitation for the month while areas to the east received below normal precipitation. Much of the region began the month with a mix of D2 Severe Drought and D3 Extreme Drought. As western areas saw a few days of rainfall during the second week of the month, some improvement was noted during the middle of the month with the removal of over half of the D3 Extreme Drought across the region. Some heavier rainfall towards the end of the month in the Brainerd Lakes was observed, but any improvement in the drought category did not occur until the first update in November.