Despite Wednesday's storm, drought conditions persist heading into spring

Just days into meteorological spring, our focus shifts to the looming spring drought. After a record warm autumn in 2024 and a significant drought deficit, we’re relying on winter to provide the needed moisture as we head into spring.

Before Wednesday’s snowstorm, winter snowfall looked fairly meek. The Twin Cities had only accumulated 16.1 inches, more than half below where we should have been for early March.

Our seasonal snowfall total is greater than 51 inches, with March normally picking up 8.2 inches.

Wednesday’s snowstorm, however, dropped a month’s worth of snow over a large portion of south-central and southeastern Minnesota.

One of the most impressive things about this system was the liquid equivalent. It didn’t take long for those shoveling Wednesday to realize just how heavy and wet the snow really was. As seen in the graphic below, you can get an idea of how many inches of liquid this snow contained.

Here are some of the biggest liquid equivalent precipitation reports that came in:

• Northfield, 2.04 inches

• Dennison, 1.86 inches

• Red Wing, 1.45 inches

• Mankato, 1.40 inches

• Apple Valley, 1.39 inches

• Woodbury, 1.13 inches

• St. Paul, 1.10 inches

All of this liquid will be a big help heading into spring as we face the drought situation. The updated drought monitor doesn’t account for Wednesday’s snow, but it gives us an idea of where conditions will dramatically improve before the next update.