North Dakota is experiencing drought conditions like it hasn't seen in years.
Much of the state is considered to be in moderate drought stage. The southwestern corner, along with a lot of the Red River Valley, is currently classified as abnormally dry. And south central extending a bit into central North Dakota is officially in a severe drought. State climatologist Adnan Akyuz says current models project dry conditions to persist throughout the next several weeks. Akyuz says jet stream patterns are not promising any meaningful rainfall in the future.
"What might come up in days here and days there are thermally induced thunderstorms that will be very spotty, and the amounts are not expected to be greater than 0.25, o.3 inches to reduce and eliminate drought. So I'm afraid as temperatures get higher, evaporation amounts are going to be a lot greater and the drought conditions in the coming weeks are going to get a lot worse."
Akyuz says current conditions are worse than they were in 2013, and we are on track to surpass the severity of the drought of 2012 - which was worse than drought conditions of 2008.
