810
AXUS73 KAPX 132127
DGTAPX
MIC001-007-011-019-039-051-055-069-079-089-101-113-119-129-135-
141-143-165-202100-

Drought Information Statement
National Weather Service Gaylord MI
527 PM EDT Thu Mar 13 2025

...Severe Drought Conditions Continue Across Parts of Northern
Lower Michigan...

.SYNOPSIS: Severe drought coverage has changed little across
northern Lower Michigan over the last two weeks.

.DROUGHT INTENSITY AND EXTENT: The following description of
northern Michigan drought conditions is based on the most recent
U.S. Drought Monitor published on March 13, 2025.

Drought Category D2...Severe Drought: Crop or pasture losses
likely... water shortages common. Areas included in drought
category D2 include Leelanau...Montmorency...Alpena...Benzie...
Crawford...Oscoda...Alcona...Manistee...Roscommon...Ogemaw...
Iosco...Gladwin...and Arenac counties in northern Lower Michigan.
This represents a small decrease in D2 drought coverage since
last week...with a removal of D2 drought across most of Presque
Isle county.

Drought Category D1...Moderate Drought: Some damage to crops and
pastures...streams or wells low...some water shortages developing
or imminent. Areas included in drought category D1 include
Presque Isle.....Grand Traverse...Kalkaska...Wexford...and
Missaukee counties in northern Lower Michigan.

.HYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS: Precipitation through the summer months
(June-August) was generally from 75 to 125 percent of normal.
Across eastern Upper Michigan June was the wettest month of the
summer with precipitation 150 to 200+ percent of normal...things
started to dry out in July with below normal rainfall though most
areas received at least 50 percent of normal precipitation. A
similar trend was noted in August.

Precipitation during the fall months (September-November) started
out below normal for September (less than 50 percent of normal
with some areas less than 25 percent of normal) and October (25 to
75 percent of normal). But November precipitation was above
normal in most locations...more than 200 percent of normal across
northern Chippewa county and in the higher terrain of eastern
Antrim/ western Otsego/northwest Kalkaska counties mainly due to a
significant lake effect snow event during Thanksgiving weekend.

Precipitation for the winter (December through February) featured
quite a bit of snowfall for the lake effect snowbelts. The
Gaylord NWS office set a new record snowfall for the winter of
149.5 inches. Sault Ste. Marie recorded its second snowiest winter
on record (138.9 inches)...Houghton Lake its third snowiest
winter (72.2 inches) and Traverse City tied its fourth snowiest
winter (125.1 inches). From a liquid equivalent precipitation
standpoint...Sault Ste. Marie recorded its 7th wettest winter on
record (9.94 inches/3.42 inches above normal). December
precipitation was above normal in most areas...with the heaviest
precipitation (150-200+ percent of normal) concentrated over the
typical northwest flow lake effect snow areas. Traverse City
recorded its second snowiest December on record (48.2 inches)...
Gaylord its fourth snowiest December (57.9 inches)...and Houghton
Lake its 9th snowiest (23.4 inches). January 2025 precipitation
was largely dependent on location relative to the Lake Superior
and Lake Michigan snowbelt areas. Precipitation departures of
150-200 percent of normal occurred mainly between Grand Traverse
Bay and the I-75 corridor in northwest Lower Michigan (bounded
roughly by the M-68 and M-72 corridors to the north and south
respectively)...the typical Lake Michigan snow belt regions. Sault
Ste. Marie recorded their second snowiest January on record (58.4
inches). February was another top five snowiest on record at
Houghton Lake (snowiest on record at 29.7 inches)...Sault Ste.
Marie (second snowiest at 43.4 inches)... Alpena (third snowiest
at 31.8 inches)...Traverse City (third snowiest at 38.4
inches)...and Gaylord (fourth snowiest at 44.9 inches).

March has started warmer and thus wetter...with a significant
rain-on-snowmelt event during the period from March 4-6 which
brought 1 to 2 inches of rain to most of northern Michigan and
result in a substantial snow melt across northern Lower Michigan.

Temperatures for the summer came out pretty much near normal; for
the fall months as a whole (September-November)...Sault Ste.
Marie recorded its warmest fall on record (+5.4 degrees) as did
Gaylord (+7.7 degrees). Second warmest falls on record occurred
at Pellston (+4.6 degrees) and Traverse City (+4.9 degrees)...
third warmest at Alpena (+4.3 degrees)...and ninth warmest at
Houghton Lake (+3.3 degrees).

Winter (December-February) temperatures were near to about 2
degrees above normal. December temperatures averaged from 1 to 3
degrees above normal... a thirteenth consecutive month of above
normal temperatures dating back to December 2023. This occurred
despite the abundant snowfall...with a couple of thaws (December
7th-10th/15th-17th/ 26th-30th) helping push temperatures above
normal. All of this warmth throughout the year added up to the
warmest calendar year on record at five of the main climatological
stations...Houghton Lake ended up tying their record warmest
year. Mean temperatures for January 2025 ended up with 1 to 2
degrees either side of normal...this despite of a particularly
cold spell from the 19th-24th of January. For February
temperatures were within about 1.5 degrees either side of normal.

For the first half of March temperatures have been warm...mean
temperatures have been 5 to 7 degrees above average.

Soil moisture is near normal across all of northern Michigan.
Streamflows on northern Michigan rivers are running near normal
thanks to the recent rain and snow melt.

.SUMMARY OF IMPACTS: No known impacts at this time.

.LOCAL DROUGHT OUTLOOK: Periods of showers and thunderstorms are
expected to sweep across northern Michigan Friday night into
Saturday...with some rain and snow possible Sunday as colder air
moves back into the state. Rainfall amounts are expected to exceed
one half inch from Friday night through Sunday across northeast
Lower Michigan. Temperatures Friday and Saturday will also be well
above normal which will continue to help melt the remaining snow
pack.

The 6 to 10 day outlook issued by the Climate Prediction Center
valid for the period of March 19-23, 2025 is calling for a high
likelihood of above normal temperatures...and is leaning toward
above normal precipitation.

The seasonal drought outlook which is valid from March through
May 2025 is predicting a slow improvement in drought conditions
heading during Spring. It is anticipated that areas currently in
the D2 drought category will improve to at least the D1 category.

.NEXT ISSUANCE DATE: This product will be updated Thursday March
20, 2025.

.RELATED WEB SITES: Additional information on current drought
conditions may be found at the following web addresses:

US Drought Monitor: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu
US Drought Information System: https://www.drought.gov
NOAA Drought Page: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Drought

Additional water and river information:

NWS Office of Water Prediction (OWP): https://water.noaa.gov
US Geological Survey (USGS): https://water.usgs.gov
US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE): https://www.usace.army.mil

.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The Drought Monitor is a multi-agency effort
involving the National Weather Service and National Centers for
Environmental Information, the USDA, state and regional center
climatologists and the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Information for this statement has been gathered from NWS and FAA
observation sites, state cooperative extension services, the
USDA, USACE and USGS.

.CONTACT INFORMATION: If you have questions or comments about
this Drought Information Statement, please contact:

National Weather Service
8800 Passenheim Road
Gaylord, MI 49735
Phone...989-731-3384
w-apx.webmaster@noaa.gov

$$

JPB