According to today's Drought Monitor report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), during the past week, several outbreaks of severe weather impacted the region starting late last week and carrying over into early this week.
The severe weather included strong thunderstorms, locally heavy rainfall, large hail, and damaging winds as well as tornadoes reported in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri.
Further to the north, several storm systems impacted the Upper Midwest bringing a mix of weather conditions including snow, sleet, freezing rain, and drizzle.
For the week, precipitation accumulations ranged from light to moderate (1 to 4 inches) with the heaviest accumulations observed in southeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and southern Michigan.
On the map, only minor changes were made including the removal of an area of Moderate Drought (D1) in southeastern Michigan in response to above-normal precipitation during the past several months as well as improved streamflow conditions.
Additionally, two areas of Moderate Drought (D1) were trimmed back in western Minnesota. Looking at the regional snow analysis from NOAA NOHRSC (April 4), the Northern Great Lakes Region is currently 48.5% snow-covered (61.2% on the same date in 2022) with an average depth of 9.4 inches (5.4 inches in 2022) and a maximum depth of 44.8 inches (49.3 inches in 2022).