Drought — Northern Itasca, Minnesota

2021-10-01 to 2021-10-31 · Northern Itasca, Minnesota

Event narrative

The northern part of the county was in D2 Severe Drought to begin the month. Rainfall for the month ended up around a half inch to an inch above normal. Around 1 to 2 inches of rain fell during the first two weeks of the month but no improvement in the drought category was realized. Another inch or so of rainfall was received during the last week of the month with again no changes in drought status observed.

Wider weather episode

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.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 989063. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.