Drought in Minnesota

Sauk Centre got a sprinkling of rain, starting around noon.

That interfered with our plans to eat outside, but I don't mind. Before the sun set, I saw that the grass between the house and the street was a much richer brown than it was this morning.

More to the point, crops around here will be that much less parched.

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that quite a bit of the USA has drought conditions: particularly in the old south.

Here in Minnesota, it could be worse, but we're not having a good year. The Minnesota Drought Situation Report of August 2 talked about lake levels staying lower than normal - including Lake Superior. That's not going to be good for tourism. The USDA-FSA is starting a formal damage assessment of crops. We could have a disaster declaration later on. (USDA-FSA is the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Farm Service Agency.)

We had a drought last year too.

The good news in all this is that the unusually low water level in the Mississippi River made rescue efforts easier last Wednesday when the 35W bridge went down, and probably saved some lives.