Areas of southern Minnesota witnessed slightly improved drought conditions over the past week while northwestern Minnesota reached historically dry conditions.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor in Minnesota shows nearly 7.4 percent of the state is experiencing exceptional drought, which is the drought monitor's highest and worse category.
"Parts of northwestern Minnesota really haven't seen any sustained rainfall for pretty much the whole summer," said Tyler Hasenstein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities. "While some parts of the state have seen sprinkles or thunderstorms, this area has seen next to nothing."
Extreme drought, right below exceptional drought on the drought monitor, now covers 42.2 percent of state compared to just over 35 percent last week.
"Even though we went from the D3 to D4, most of that was coming from a D2 area," Hasenstein added. "The more extreme drought doesn't really alleviate the extreme drought category. Despite the increase to the exceptional drought category, the extreme drought is just as big, if not bigger, than last month."
Rain appears to be vacant from upcoming forecasts with slight chances of showers appearing late Tuesday or Wednesday.
Hasenstein says substantial rainfall is needed to even get areas of exceptional drought back to the extreme drought category.
"To actually see improvement, you're talking at least a couple of inches of sustained rainfall over that area," he said. "Usually it takes upwards of five, six, or seven inches to see a noticeable difference. You can actually go out and see plants that are a little bit healthier from that rainfall."