After an extraordinarily dry winter, the rain and snow that fell over the weekend and into Tuesday brought drought relief to most of Minnesota.
The latest Drought Monitor map, released Thursday, shows the southern two-thirds of the state is now listed as just “abnormally dry” after last week’s map showing most of the same area in moderate to severe drought.
The data was taken through Tuesday morning.
North-central Minnesota remains in severe drought and the northeast remains in moderate drought, as do a few counties in far southeastern Minnesota.
Much of the Twin Cities metro received about a foot of snow while farther north as much as 18 inches fell. There is roughly 1 inch of water in every 10 inches of snow.
In south-central Minnesota there was less snow but more rain.
“It was a pretty general rain over most of the southern third of the state,” said Kent Thiesse, a farm management analyst in Lake Crystal.
“Everyone got an inch and a half to a little over 2 inches, either in rain or in rain and snow.”
Thiesse said the moisture was especially beneficial because there is no frost in the ground so the rain and melted snow soaked down into the ground rather than running off.
“I know some farmers were worrying about dry topsoil, the top couple of feet, because of the dry February and into March. They were concerned about whether seeds would germinate this spring, but this should help a lot.”
He said the region is on track to hit normal planting dates this spring.
“Normally in our region you’d like to hit the fields by the second or third week of April to get the corn in and by late April or early May to get the soybeans in the ground. That’s ideal but, of course, it’s not always ideal,” Thiesse said.
“So at this point we’re looking pretty good unless something big changes.”
Josh Wallin, owner of First Class Lawn Care, said the rain will definitely help lawns green up when temperatures get a little warmer.
But he would have preferred more snow than the rain we got recently. Like many lawn care/landscaping businesses, First Class relies on doing snowplowing during the winter months.
“When your business relies on snow, it’s painful when there’s no snow. It’s hard to keep the guys busy.”
He said they have been doing some tree-trimming work.
As for lawns, Wallin said snow and rain both carry not just moisture but a lot of nitrogen, which helps fertilize and green up grass.
He said lawns were definitely stressed this winter as they had no insulating snowcover and the soil was very dry.
“But lawns are designed to go dormant and come back. Lawns can go through some damage, just not a significant amount.”
After a few days of cold weather, temperatures will begin to climb, with Friday set to see a high of near 50 degrees. Then highs in the low to mid 40s will be seen the next several days after that. By midweek we should be at about 50 degrees with 55 degrees forecast for Thursday.
Easter Sunday will be relatively mild but outdoor events may be interfered with by the weather.
The high temperature Sunday is to be 46 with a 30% chance of snow in the morning and a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.