WILLISTON, N.D. - Williston snagged 2/10th of an inch of rain overnight Wednesday, May 23 - not enough to move the needle on a moderate drought that continues to have its big fat thumb pressed down on western North Dakota.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows Williams County still under a moderate drought, unchanged from last week. It's also only slightly better than the picture looked three months ago.
In fact, the abnormally dry and moderate drought designations have been steadily increasing from Bismarck to the Canadian border, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which notes that 60-day rainfall totals are 30 percent short of normal.
Williston has had 3.32 inches of precipitation year to date, where the more usual amount is 4.02 inches, leaving the area short 7/10 of an inch. Snowpack was a healthy portion of its total accumulation, indicating a substantial amount of missing spring rain, according to meteorologist Alex Edwards, with the National Weather Service in Bismarck.
For May, precipitation totals .51 inches, which is 8/10 behind the average 1.33 inches.
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"These little pop up showers are not going to be very long-lasting," he said. "It just depends on whether you can land underneath one."
Most of the precipitation so far has been limited to an area south of Williston, according to meteorologist Corey King, with Bismarck National Weather Service. "The heart and soul of the rain fell in the central part of the state, on down to the South Dakota border," he said.
That has substantially improved soil moisture conditions for an arc that cuts through the middle of the state, starting at the midpoint of the South Dakota border and curving east to the midpoint of the Minnesota border.
King said there is still substantial hope of improvement for dry areas in the state, however, with forecasts predicting increased scattered thundershowers next week.
"The question is how much will we truly get out of it as they come by," King said. "Thunderstorms can be a bit hit and miss, but when we look at a 7-day rainfall map, a good part of the state is forecast to get upwards of a half an inch or more. We'll have to see how it plays out as the thunder showers move through."
In the 8 to 14-day forecast, conditions are favoring above normal temperatures, and potentially, above normal precipitation, King said.
"But will it come in the amount we want and land where need it to land?" King asked.
Flood potential on the Missouri River, meanwhile, continues to be high for the Williston area, despite the drought conditions.
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"That's kind of an interesting part of the whole thing," King said. "The mountain snowpack is contributing to the river levels out there, so in some areas that are dealing with drought, the river is running high due to excess snow pack coming from Montana."
The warming trend is likely to melt a substantial portion of the above average snow pack quickly.
"Parts of Montana have precipitation in the forecast, too, so all that could feed into the river system at once," King said. "We will have to keep an eye on things as the forecast gets closer."
