FARGO – After another rainy weekend, most of the North Dakota side of the Red River Valley is now out of drought status, according to Thursday's report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.
A slim band along the river is considered to be abnormally dry, but not quite dry enough to be a drought. Farther east in Minnesota, a moderate drought is in effect.
It's a one intensity-level improvement over last week's drought report, when abnormally dry areas were in moderate drought and areas in moderate drought were in severe drought.
The report comes after 2.75 inches of rain drenched Fargo-Moorhead during a 24-hour period between Sunday and Monday, the biggest daily amount in what's already a wet month, according to the National Weather Service. There have been 5.8 inches of rain so far this month, 4.1 inches more than normal.
Weather service figures show concentrations of rain in the Fargo-Moorhead area and eastern Walsh County to the north, which received more than 3 inches in some areas. Much of the Minnesota side of the Red River Valley got only 1 to 1.5 inches of rain. Farther east, parts of Wadena, Minn., area received more than 4 inches.
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The Drought Monitor said coast-to-coast stormy weather this past weekend primarily benefited the Midwest but was not enough to improve the exceptional droughts in California and Nevada. The monitor rates droughts on a five-step scale that ranges from abnormally dry, indicating a short dry period, to exceptional drought, indicating shortages that create water emergencies. Moderate droughts are one step up from abnormally dry.
On the Web: How wet was it? The weather service knows . How dry was it? The drought monitor knows.
