John Wheeler: There are signs our weather may be trending drier

FARGO — Starting in 1993, the weather pattern over the Red River Valley region became wetter. Average annual rainfall increased 15 to 20%. The cause or causes of this sudden change is unclear, much like we do not know the exact reason that the 1930s Dust Bowl happened.

Likewise, we did not know in 1993 that the weather would stay wet so long. To be fair, there have been dry periods since 1993, but they have been generally short periods.The collective peak of this wet period may have been from 2008 through 2011, a period that included three consecutive basin-wide spring floods on the Red River.



This was immediately followed by a short term drought in 2012, the driest year since 1993. Precipitation has been up and down since, but has been generally trending downward. What happens next may well surprise us, but precipitation does appear to be in a downward trend.

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