Comparing the latest drought monitor to previous conditions

BISMARCK, N. D. (KFYR) - Our wet spring helped to alleviate some drought concerns, but it persists in other parts of the region. Here is a closer look at our current drought monitor and how it compares to other notable years.

The latest drought monitor was released last Thursday and shows that 63.19% of North Dakota has no drought conditions, while only 2.34% is in severe drought.

This is an overall improvement from the week before, especially since the extreme drought category was removed for the first time since Sept. 24 of last year. That’s when this stretch of drought ramped up, mostly due to our dry fall, and it was at its worst last November, when 19.38% of North Dakota was in extreme drought.

Even though our drought has recently improved for many, it was a completely different story last June. A year ago, 91.73% of the state had no drought conditions, and only 2.23% of the state was in moderate drought in the southwest.

But we don’t have to compare just recent drought monitors.

This graphic shows the drought cycle dating back to January of 2000, and how much of the state was in what level of drought. Some years, like 2010 and 2011, had hardly any drought conditions. But one of the worst droughts in recent North Dakota history was in 2021.

In June of 2021, the whole state was under some form of drought; 17.68% was in exceptional drought, the worst level. These drought conditions continued through the spring of 2022.

The outlook for June, July and August is forecasted to have temperatures above normal and below normal precipitation, so this could be increasing drought conditions.