The unexpected April snow showering the northland won’t get rid of the year-long drought, but it’s helping ease the problem. Danielle Kaeding reports from Superior.

It could be the work of fate, but Amanda Draning of the National Weather Service office in Duluth says droughts usually arrive in trends, every ten years or so. Draning says the droughts currently plaguing northern Minnesota and Wisconsin will probably stick around for awhile. “Droughts are a long-lived beast. They take awhile to develop. You need a prolonged period of dry weather to get into that drought category. They take a long time to get out of because even though we’ll have a month here with some good snow and rain, if it doesn’t sustain itself, we’re just going to back to where we were.” Draning says areas like Virginia, Hibbing and Grand Rapids are experiencing extreme drought, but the Twin Ports region has been downgraded to moderate drought—an improvement since last fall. Draning says it’s uncertain how dry this summer is expected to be. “We’re in the category what’s called ‘equal chances.’ Basically, that means there’s no strong signal in our weather patterns that’s saying we’re either going to be above or below normal precipitation-wise. The patterns that they’re setting up aren’t really putting us in any favorable extremely warm or extremely wet or anything like that.” Draning says the dry weather could cause distress for those whose livelihood depends on water. “If you’re a person who has a well at your house who started conserving water pretty rapidly this summer and fall, things are starting to get threatening. Obviously animals and livestock and whatnot who are out and depend on those little creeks and streams that have dried over the summer and fall, so it’s just—when you have a shortage of water basically everyone and everything is going to be affected.” Draning says the northland will need a normal spring just to hold steady where it is now. Draning says the drought leaves Lake Superior wanting for water. “Well, our lake level, as of a few weeks ago when I checked for Lake Superior, we were at about 2 feet below normal. Those kinds of deficits and being in the extreme drought earlier this season, it’s going to take awhile to bounce back from. So, even though we’ve gotten a good amount of snow this month, we’re just getting now to our usual wet season of our springtime. So, we’re going to need at least a normal spring just to hold steady where we are.” Draning says drought conditions have improved from extreme to moderate for the Twin Ports since last fall, but other areas are not so fortunate. “Down maybe the Brainerd to Hinckley to Hayward line, south of the Twin Ports there, they’re dry. They’re index is normally dry. Then, from there, it just worsens as you go northward. By the time you reach the national border, you are still in the extreme drought.” Draning says it’s a fifty-fifty shot whether the weather conditions will improve this spring and summer. If they don’t, she says the shipping industry may suffer. “For at least the lake levels, if you’re water is shallower, you’re big ships and boats can’t carry as much cargo because they have to be up higher or they’re going to hit the bottom. So, economic-wise, it’s just a big ripple effect.” Draning believes based on past trends that drought conditions will continue for the time-being.

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