CHANHASSEN, Minn. — Rain has been more than difficult to come by recently – it's been almost nonexistent.
The National Weather Service Twin Cities reports that it has measured barely a trace of precipitation, marking another stretch of dry weather.
"Could be a dry September to dry October, back to back," Brennan Dettmann, a meteorologist at NWS Twin Cities, said.
"There's been periods of normalcy, but certainly has been a lot of record-setting conditions that we've seen this past year," he continued.
This past year has seen many records added or broken. December to February was the warmest winter on record. March to May was the 10th warmest spring.
Last month was both the warmest and driest September ever in Minnesota.
Those trends also include a shift from the heavy rains we saw over the summer to dry conditions right now.
"We're not alone in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but certainly, yeah, it has been a quick uptick from what it's been from the spring and early part of the summer," he said.
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows 97% of Minnesota under abnormally dry conditions.
That's why NWS Twin Cities issued a red flag warning for nearly all of Minnesota Thursday.
"With the drought, you know, there hasn't been any precipitation in a while, things are just generally dry," Dettmann said. "So you get something to spark, it can very quickly spread with the aid of those gusty winds pushing in, you know, any fires that form. So that's the main reason for having the red flag warning."
If you're looking for relief, don't count on it coming anytime soon.
"Expecting it to stay dry into the end of October," Dettmann said.
With little precipitation coming soon, expect to see these reminders of fire danger continue – whether there's a warning or not.
"You'll likely see that continue into the end of October and November, as long as there's no major precipitation that falls during that time frame," Dettmann said.