Drought conditions persist across the area

The latest outlook from the U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday continues to show drought conditions persisting across the ABC 6 Weather First area.

The outlook has changed very little over the last several weeks and continues to show extreme drought conditions across most of northeast Iowa with severe to moderate drought conditions further north into southeast Minnesota.

Precipitation has been hard to come by over the last several months. In fact, from July 1, 2023 to March 14, 2024, the Rochester International Airport (RST) has received 14.24″ of precipitation which is 7.21″ below average over that period with the only month that finished with above average precipitation being October.

Looking ahead, precipitation chances continue to be low. A couple of storm systems look to cross the region toward the second half of next week, however they are not set in stone and several uncertainties remain on the evolution of those systems. Details will be ironed out as it gets closer.