GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Feast or famine.
That's how it seems precipitation has been across Minnesota this summer into fall, and if we're talking the last three days... it has DEFINITELY been an all-you-can-eat buffet when it comes to rain.
KARE 11 meteorologist Ben Dery explains that the rain event that started Friday and is still going in some parts of the state Tuesday is due to what is called a "cut-off low," where a main low pressure systems cuts off from regular flow patterns and stalls out over a certain area, which can keep clouds and precipitation hanging around for days.
So far, MSP International Airport has picked up 3.55 inches of rain since Friday, more than the Twin Cities averages for the entire month of September. Areas just west of the metro saw more than 6 inches.
One neighborhood in Duluth also registered more than 6 inches, while the "official" reading at the airport was 4.7 inches. The deluge in Duluth added to what is currently the eighth-wettest September on record, with 10 inches of rain so far. City crews scrambled both Saturday and Sunday to deal with flooded streets and sewers so full that manhole covers were displaced by rising water.
Other major communities in Minnesota and western Wisconsin received significant rain totals between Friday and Sunday, Sept. 23-25. Here is a list of some of them.
On a positive note, three days of steady rain took a significant chunk out of Minnesota's drought numbers, sending moisture to saturate the ground instead of just running off into lakes and rivers. Still, Dery says our rainfall deficit for 2023 is 4.5 inches.
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