Drought — Northern Cass, Minnesota

2021-11-01 to 2021-11-30 · Northern Cass, Minnesota

Event narrative

The month began with D2 Severe Drought across the entirety of the northern part of the county. Rainfall during the last week of October led to the removal of D2 Extreme Drought in the southeastern half of the northern part of the county, being replaced with D1 Moderate Drought with the update on the 2nd. Precipitation over the remainder of the month was near to very slightly above normal with most of it falling during the first two weeks. This led to further reduction in the area of D2 Severe Drought with the update on the 16th, leaving only areas along and north of US 2 in D2 Severe Drought with D1 Moderate Drought across the remainder of the northern part of the county. No additional changes in the drought status were seen over the remainder of the month.

Wider weather episode

Drought conditions persisted across much of northeastern Minnesota during the month of November, but improvement was seen as the month progressed. Precipitation varied across the region with the Brainerd Lakes area eastward to the I-35 corridor receiving slightly below normal precipitation for the month while areas to the north received above normal precipitation, especially along the North Shore into eastern Cook County. Much of the region began the month with a mix of D2 Severe Drought and D3 Extreme Drought with areas of D1 Moderate Drought and D0 Abnormally Dry over far southern areas. Rainfall during the first two weeks of the month led to the removal of the areas of D3 Extreme Drought across Koochiching and St. Louis counties with losses of D2 Severe Drought across the region as well. The pattern turned less active overall for the latter half of the month, but above normal rainfall along the North Shore led to further reduction in the area of D3 Extreme Drought with the update on the 30th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 993257. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.