Drought intensifies, fire danger increases, record levels set

Reed Enfinson
Benson set the record on Oct. 21, when the temperature reached 82 degrees at the National Weather Service recording station at the municipal airport.
The old temperature record of 78 degrees was set in 1953, the first year Benson began keeping daily weather records.
This month’s maximum temperature was 6 degrees above average at 67.9 degrees, and the minimum temperature of 39.0 degrees was 2 tenths of a degree below average.
As of October 23, the average high is 55 degrees and the average low is 34 degrees.
The area and much of Minnesota could see the driest month of September through October on record if it doesn’t rain soon.
The area received just 5 hundredths of an inch of rain in October. In September, only 1 tenth of an inch of rain fell over two months for a total of 15 hundredths of an inch. The two months combined averaged 5.07 inches of rain.
As of last Friday, the statewide average precipitation for the month is just 0.26 inches, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ climatology office.
It lists the following five driest Octobers in state history, based on statewide average precipitation:

Year of Rain
1952 0.13
1889 0.14
1895 0.27
1944 0.35
1976 0.46

This week’s U.S. Drought Report found that 97% of Minnesota is abnormally dry, while 72% of the landscape is in at least moderate drought, and of that, 28% is in severe drought.
“River and lake levels continue to decline and landscape vegetation is drying out,” the DNR said. or Extreme in terms of fire hazard.”
The NWS issued Red Flag warnings for all of western Minnesota twice in the past week. “A Red Flag Warning means fires have the potential to spread quickly and easily get out of control under forecast weather conditions, including gusty winds and low relative humidity,” the NWS said.

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