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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Sven Sundgaard

Portions of Minnesota now in extreme drought; hot, dry weather next week

Thursday will be cooler behind yesterday’s front

07-20 drought
The latest drought monitor
National Drought Mitigation Center

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Areas of drought continue to grow in Minnesota. Portions of the state are now in extreme drought. We’ll be temporarily cooler Thursday but hot, dry weather builds for next week.

Minnesota’s drought continues to expand

For the first time this year, parts of Minnesota are now categorized as being in extreme drought. Drought overall has expanded to include 70 percent of the state now. All categories of drought expanded across Minnesota.

drought compare
A comparison of this week's drought monitor versus last week's
National Drought Mitigation Center

It’s worth noting that the data in this week’s drought monitor is through early Tuesday morning so it does not include rainfall some areas saw late Wednesday.

Storm reports and rainfall from Wednesday

There were numerous hail reports Wednesday evening along with some high wind gusts.

storm reports
Storm reports from late Wednesday
National Weather Service

A 74 mph wind gust was reported in Richmond, in Stearns county. Baseball sized hail was reported in Marcell, in Itasca county to name just a couple reports.

Some swaths of the state saw beneficial rainfall as well. Parts of the Iron Range received up to one to two inches of rainfall while parts of the northern suburbs saw an area of one inch of rainfall also.

rainfall
Rainfall over the past 24 hours
NOAA via pivotal weather

Very hot, dry weather builds for next week

Behind Wednesday’s cool front it’s cooler and more comfortable with dew points in the 50s and highs mainly in the 70s to low 80s.

thu hi 8a
Forecast highs Thursday
National Weather Service

Friday will be a few degrees warmer but with the addition of some potential spotty, instability showers popping up in the afternoon. The showers will be rather hit and miss however.

fri precip
Forecast precipitation 4 a.m. Friday through 1 a.m. Saturday
College of DuPage Weather

The big story will be the heat building late in the weekend into next week with highs in the 90s to potentially even 100 degrees in southern Minnesota.

heat builds
Excessive heat builds for next week
National Weather Service

The hot, dry weather next week is guaranteed to worsen Minnesota’s drought situation.