First, high and dry... now, wet and wild

Less than three weeks ago, fish were dying in what was left of metro rivers and creeks. Lawns were brown, perennials were wearing a light coat of dust and one farmer's market blamed drought for the closing of a midweek sale.

Tuesday afternoon, a light rain pushed the Twin Cities past the record for August rainfall. Remember mosquitoes?

"Be careful what you wish for," said Heidi Heiland, owner of Heidi's Lakeshore Gardens, a metro landscape design and maintenance company. "We were all doing the rain dance so hard it actually worked."

A weather front too lazy to move out of the Midwest -- the same one that caused the major flooding across southeastern Minnesota, southwestern Wisconsin and parts of Illinois and Ohio -- has poured 5.39 inches of rain on the Twin Cities over the past two weeks through Tuesday afternoon. That's more than fell in June and July together. Throw in the 3.93 inches that fell in the first half of the month and you get 9.32 inches, exactly .01 more than the monthly record set in 1977.

Heiland said the rain has revived the metro-area landscape as well as her business, but it also brought damage cleanup after heavy rains, high winds and hail.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced on Tuesday that it was closing Fort Snelling State Park until further notice because of the large number of trees toppled in an overnight squall that brought rain and 70-mph winds, large hail and heavy rain to the metro area.

Today at 5 a.m., 8,386 Xcel Energy customers still were without power in the metro area.

Oh, Susannah

Many locations from the Twin Cities across southern Minnesota are now above average for yearly rainfall. But travelers crossing the state might be reminded of a few lines from an old folk song, "Rained all night the day I left; the weather it was dry."

Last week's national drought map showed conditions changing dramatically south to north through the metro area.

"If you live in Farmington, you might be saying 'What drought?' But if you live in Ham Lake, you might be saying, 'My goodness, it's dry,'" said assistant DNR state climatologist Greg Spoden.

North of the metro area, most of Minnesota is still struggling through drought for the second straight summer. Alexandria may wind up with only about an inch of rain for July and August together. Duluth has been well below average since May 1. While residents of southeastern Minnesota were cleaning up mud and flood debris, the state's drought task force met Friday to assess the lack of moisture in the rest of the state.

Even after recent rains, many of the state's rivers are still running low. The rain hasn't improved the state's crop outlook, either. On Monday, the Minnesota Agricultural Statistics Service rated 40 percent of the state's corn crop as good or excellent, compared with 58 percent at this time last year, and 71 percent in 2005. Soybeans were 59 percent good or excellent Monday compared with 61 percent last year and 69 percent the year before.

Though the moisture turnaround has been dramatic, it's been late in the season, so the benefit for this year's crops is likely to be "somewhat minimal," said Roger Binning, statistician with the Minnesota office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Rains are also not likely to revive much of the state's forests, said Alan Jones, silviculture supervisor for the DNR. Healthy trees across much of Minnesota have pulled into crouch as a defense against drought, dropping leaves early and signaling a drab fall. Some roadside pines and spruce that struggled to find moisture last winter have already died after a second drought season, while weakened oaks are under attack from beetles, Jones said.

Drought, Jones added, "isn't turned around with a couple of rainfalls. We need prolonged rains. And a decent snowpack would certainly help."

National Weather Service hydrologist and meteorologist Dan Luna noted that the recent rains were fueled by an unusual channel of moisture coming from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, plus the customary summer moisture from the Gulf of Mexico that was stalled by an east-west flow of air about 12,000 feet above the ground. Meteorologist Paul Douglas added that the reason drought preceded the rains was because similar warm-cold boundaries had remained to the north and south of Minnesota for much of the summer. But that situation should change soon, he said.

A high-pressure system will finally send the soggy front on its way east today, bringing sunny skies, pleasant daytime temperatures and cool nights.

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646

Bill McAuliffe • mcaul@startribune.com