How Minnesota went from severe drought to extreme flooding

MINNEAPOLIS — How quickly Minnesota went from extreme drought to extreme flooding . This month alone, parts of the state have seen upwards of a foot of rain .

If you're wondering why there's been so much flooding , there are several factors.

"Ironically, we kind of break droughts with really wet years after them. This has happened a few times in our history," said Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Climatologist Pete Boulay.

He said our drought pattern ended back in March and we've seen above-average rainfall each month since.

"April, May and then June especially. And it just kept adding up, adding up, adding up. And then eventually we saturated the soils, and water has nowhere else to go, so it goes into the lakes and rivers."

With the ground waterlogged, our most recent weather pattern was a recipe for disaster.

"The state's been on the dividing line between really hot, steamy air to our south and east, and then cooler air up to the north in Canada. The fronts have been kind of right across Minnesota, kind of the dividing line there," Boulay said.

As our atmosphere continues to warm, that means it can hold more moisture. A one-degree increase equates to 4% more water vapor. That can mean more intense rainfall in the future.

"Part of it is also we're right in the middle of the continent, very far away from any ocean. So we are the land of extremes here in Minnesota just to begin with," Boulay said.