STILLWATER, Minn. — The latest numbers released Wednesday night show the St. Croix River is about six feet away from its flood stage, which it's expected to reach Sunday night.
That's why Stillwater residents stacked tens of thousands of sandbags to protect shops and restaurants from the rising water.
But flooding isn’t the only risk Minnesota faces as the temperature rises. The warmer weather and wind also present a fire threat.
“We are seeing the snow melt at a rapid pace — really drying out the ground — and right now, it's really gusty and a lot of low relative humidity,” said KARE 11 meteorologist Ben Dery.
Dery says that dryness could be benefitting the flood situation.
“We do expect most of the rivers to crest sometime next week,” said Dery. “I guess the good news with all this is even though we're seeing the rapid melt off of the snow, we're not adding any water by heading it rain all day. And it's been really dry lately, at least over the last week or so.”
It’s a give and take because those conditions can be fire feeders, according to Allissa Reynolds, the wildfire prevention supervisor with the DNR.
“The high temperatures, the high winds, and the low humidity really drives our fire danger right now, this time of year,” said Reynolds.
Minnesota has this play out across the state with small brush fires.
“We've had a lot of a number of fires in the north metro area today, as well as in southern Minnesota,” said Reynolds.
Safety officials hope folks will take extra precautions in the days to come.
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