DNR: State's lakes and rivers rising and recovering from drought
One good thing about the lousy spring in Minnesota this year is that many worries about drought effects have diminished.
Minnesota Public Radio reports that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says Minnesota's lakes, streams and underground water supplies are recovering rapidly from last year's drought.
Many lakes and rivers hit historically low levels last year, but have been bouyed by recent heavy rains.
"Stream flows across Minnesota are either at or above historical medians, in some cases well above,"a DNR climatologist tells the station. "Other measures would be lake levels, which are rebounding nicely after being very low in the aftermath of the dry 2012. And also groundwater levels are on the rebound; they're starting to come up again."
MPR reports the DNR's latest hydrologic report says nearly all of the Minnesota's lakes are at or above normal levels. Even White Bear Lake in the eastern Twin Cities continued to rise from its lowest reported lake level since 1924, with a gain of 1.2 feet since November.
The latest U.S. drought monitor shows just how rapidly things have changed. At the start of April all of Minnesota was too dry, says MPR; now less than a third of the state is in that category.
