Snow Deficit Leaves Parts of the North Central U.S. in Drought

For much of the north central region of the United States, the winter months were colder than normal. Despite those temperatures, precipitation was also below normal, resulting in widespread drought conditions across the region.

Snow Deficit Impacts Minnesota and Other States

Matthew Sittel, the assistant state climatologist for Kansas, said there’s been a snow deficit of anywhere from 20 to 40 inches below normal for Minnesota, the Dakotas, and parts of Iowa this winter. 

In Pennington County, Minnesota, only an average of 0.01 inches of rain fell throughout the month of February, Sittel said. Red Lake County, Minnesota, also saw a significantly low amount of precipitation at 0.02 inches in February, he said.

“There are currently eight counties in Minnesota that are experiencing their driest start to a year,” Sittel said.

Colorado Faces Record Dryness This Winter

Minnesota isn’t the only state facing low precipitation numbers as 2025 continues. Several counties in Colorado have also been unusually dry, Sittel said.

“There’s one county in western Colorado that is the record driest [for the three-month meteorological winter],” Sittel said. That county is Montrose County, which just recorded their driest winter on record with 1.34 inches of precipitation averaged county-wide, he said. “The previous record was 1.58 inches.”

Not only is Montrose County dealing with a warm and dry winter, Sittel said other parts of western Colorado were also “much below average [precipitation] for the meteorological winter.”

Massive Temperature Swings 

In addition to low snowfall across the north central region of the U.S., states like Nebraska have also experienced significant temperature swings of over 100℉ over the course of a few days this winter, Sittel said.

“Nebraska was really the center point for where we had these triple digit differences,” Sittel said. 

Three separate towns in Nebraska saw temperatures rise over 100℉ over a five- to six-day period in late February, Sittel said. Broken Bow, Nebraska, saw the biggest difference going from -35℉ on Feb. 20 to 70℉ on Feb. 26, a temperature difference of 105℉.

Above Normal Temperatures During First Half of March

Throughout the first half of March, temperature departures from normal have been roughly five to as much as 10℉ above normal, Sittel said.

In some parts of the western Dakotas and western Minnesota, temperatures have even been more than 10℉ above normal, he said. “As a result, with these warm temperatures,” Sittel said, “we’ve seen a dramatic decrease to a complete eradication of the frost depth. We’ve also seen soil temperatures have warmed up quite a bit.”

Soil temperatures have warmed up to even be slightly above 50℉ in southern Kansas, Sittel said. “So that’s good news for folks who are considering planting.”

Sittel said there is a risk of a freeze happening, however, for states like Kansas where soil temperatures are at 50℉, it’s unlikely that the ground will freeze again.

A Look at the Drought Monitor Maps

After the dry and colder than normal winter, Sittel said just one state in the North Central region of the U.S. is completely drought free. Kentucky reported high levels of precipitation over the winter.

Compared to a year ago, Sittel said “the majority of what we see are worsening drought conditions, and comparatively we were at 34% drought free [for the region] last year at this time. We’re at 20% now. Last year, we were at 31% or more of the north central region in D1 [moderate] or worse drought conditions,” he said, “that number has increased to 49%.”

Drought conditions have also increased in just the last two weeks, Sittel said. 

Looking forward at the drought outlook from March to June, Sittel said drought conditions are “expected to persist in the Missouri River Basin through the Dakotas and Nebraska.”

In southern Wisconsin and parts of Michigan, Sittel said “some areas appear to have the potential for improving conditions.”