Snow, rain, and ice that fell across much of Minnesota and Wisconsin earlier this week has contributed to a significant improvement in the drought situation across the St. Croix River watershed.

While the whole region is still in some form of drought, a large part of it was upgraded from “Moderate Drought” to “Abnormally Dry” in the past 10 days.

Over the same time span, the river saw a slight increase in flow. The St. Croix Falls gage, operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, showed a climb of just under 1,000 cubic feet per second.

That represented a nearly 50 percent increase in flow. But the river remains at only half its typical level for this time of year.

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