Submitted Photo Despite rainfall in the Minot region last week, much of Ward County and adjacent counties remain mired in “exceptional” drought conditions with much of the remainder of the state rated as being in “extreme” drought.

The rain received in Minot and the surrounding area last week ranged from .80 to 1.5 inches or more. It was a much celebrated event in the midst of a lengthy dry spell dating back to the fall of 2020.

However, as welcome as the rain was, it wasn’t nearly enough to change the “exceptional” drought designation for much of the center of the state.

According to the latest release of the U.S. Drought Monitor, issued Thursday, 17.7% of the state remains in the highest drought category. The same percentage as a week earlier and prior to the recent rain. Exceptional drought continues to grip the southern and eastern portions of Ward County and much of the central and northern part of the state.

The Drought Monitor noted that, “Warmer than normal temperatures continued their hold on the northern tier of the Lower 48, particularly in the northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest” and “many places in the central and northern Great Plains have had warmer daytime high temperatures than much of the southern Great Plains, leading to potentially large losses of surface moisture to the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration in the northern Great Plains.”

Drought conditions both improved and degraded, depending on where rainfall occurred and how much rain fell. Localized improvement in drought conditions included parts of eastern Montana and western North Dakota. In areas that didn’t receive heavy rainfall there was generally a degradation of drought conditions.

A few areas of North Dakota, where up to seven inches of rain fell, there was some notable drought relief. Those areas were primarily small sections in the western, south-central, and southeast portions of the state. Overall, says the Drought Monitor, 93% of North Dakota is still considered to be in severe drought or worse, and the state actually saw small areas of drought expansion this past week.

Through Thursday, the rainfall total for June measured at the North Central Research and Extension Center south of Minot was 0.93 inch. Average June rainfall for Minot is 3.58 inches.