CHANHASSEN, Minn. — Rain has been more than difficult to come by recently – it’s been almost nonexistent. 

The National Weather Service Twin Cities reports that it has measured barely a trace of precipitation, marking another stretch of dry weather.

“Could be a dry September to dry October, back to back,” Brennan Dettmann, a meteorologist at NWS Twin Cities, said.

“There’s been periods of normalcy, but certainly has been a lot of record-setting conditions that we’ve seen this past year,” he continued.

This past year has seen many records added or broken. December to February was the warmest winter on record. March to May was the 10th warmest spring.

Last month was both the warmest and driest September ever in Minnesota.

Those trends also include a shift from the heavy rains we saw over the summer to dry conditions right now.

“We’re not alone in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but certainly, yeah, it has been a quick uptick from what it’s been from the spring and early part of the summer,” he said.

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows 97% of Minnesota under abnormally dry conditions.

That’s why NWS Twin Cities issued a red flag warning for nearly all of Minnesota Thursday.

“With the drought, you know, there hasn’t been any precipitation in a while, things are just generally dry,” Dettmann said. “So you get something to spark, it can very quickly spread with the aid of those gusty winds pushing in, you know, any fires that form. So that’s the main reason for having the red flag warning.”

If you’re looking for relief, don’t count on it coming anytime soon.

“Expecting it to stay dry into the end of October,” Dettmann said.

With little precipitation coming soon, expect to see these reminders of fire danger continue – whether there’s a warning or not.

“You’ll likely see that continue into the end of October and November, as long as there’s no major precipitation that falls during that time frame,” Dettmann said.

ST PAUL, Minn. — At this year’s Minnesota Educators’ Academy (MEA), the main focus was how to better students’ mental health. MEA is the largest development opportunity for educators in Minnesota, and gives teachers the opportunity to learn ways to improve in the classroom and handle the forever-changing needs of students.

“We need more counselors, we need more social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, people who really know their stuff,” said Education Minnesota President Denise Specht. “There are some schools that only have a counselor one day a week. We simply need more teams to address the needs.”

Specht also said having smaller class sizes would help teachers build stronger relationships with their students, potentially bettering their mental health.

According to the CDC, 40% of students experience sadness and hopelessness on a regular basis. Student teacher Caitlin Efta feels social media is playing a large part. 

“There’s a lot of bullying and other things that happen online, and a lot of kids are just falling victim to that,” Efta said.

Minnesota’s 2024 teacher of the year Tracy Byrd says to improve students mental health, we need to take the stress off of them.

“Just by letting them know, relax, you are enough, you are okay,” Byrd said. “Don’t put too much pressure on this one assignment or this one test or this one book.”

ST PAUL, Minn. — Women’s Advocates is considered the first shelter in the nation for survivors of domestic assault. It opened in St. Paul in 1974 and on Thursday, it’s hosting its 50th anniversary gala at the Landmark Center.

The tickets are sold out.

The organization is in the midst of a campaign to raise $14.25 million to acquire and renovate two new facilities in St. Paul to better serve the public. It includes 19 new individual apartment-style units totaling 58 beds for adults and children. 

The space would also allow survivors to live with their pets 24/7, increase mental health support, and be ADA-compliant for all genders, sexualities, and abilities. 

“It’s hard because we want to work ourselves out of a job, we want to be in a scenario where there’s not violence present in our community, but until we get there, we’re here as a support system for folks needing that,” said Executive Director Holly Henning.

Women’s Advocates currently serves about 50 adults and children, sometimes for three months at a time. It offers services ranging from mental and chemical health to legal advice and financial support. 

The organization originally started as a hotline to guide people going through divorce. 

“What they were finding when those calls were coming in was much different than, I just need a divorce,” said Henning. “It was folks who were in immediate danger and really needed help beyond that.”

Nowadays, the organization often has to turn people away. Other organizations actively work to find empty beds across the city for survivors in need. But Henning says, that sometimes, the violence people are experiencing is also more severe. 

Violence Free Minnesota says that the 40 people killed in domestic violence situations last year is the most in more than three decades of record-keeping.

“It’s about compassion and empathy and I think it’s OK to have emotion, it’s OK to see people human to human and they’re continuously reminding you of why the work is so important,” said Henning.  

Henning is also hoping to raise $125,000 during October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. If you’d like to donate, you can find more information about the capital campaign here. 

There’s also more information about services and ways to connect with someone through the Women’s Advocates 24/7 crisis resource hotline here.