Drought conditions deepen in Minnesota

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News
With each passing week, the U.S. Drought Monitor shows a deepening drought in Minnesota. As lake and rivers levels drop, crops shrivel, and lawns turn brown, the evidence of the drought is impossible to ignore – unless you live around Benson.

As most other areas missed the thunderstorms that passed over Minnesota in July, Benson seemed to be in a sweet spot. July brought 3.92 inches of rain, 23 hundredths of an inch above the average of 3.69 inches. That abundant rainfall shows in the conditions of the crops and lawns in the immediate area.

However, a glance at the mud flats that have developed in the middle of the Chippewa River as it flows through Benson tells another story, one of dry conditions in the watershed in the counties to the north. Sloughs have dried up and lake levels have fallen dramatically in the area...
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