REGIONAL— Given weeks of little or no rain, river levels across northeastern Minnesota have dropped sharply, with most regional watersheds now considered critically low.
The Vermilion River, which had been considered within normal flow just one week ago, fell sharply over the past week as outflow from Lake Vermilion has slowed considerably due to the intensifying drought.
At the mouth of the Vermilion River, at Crane Lake, flow dropped from 141 cubic feet per second, or cfs, to 93 cfs. Anything below 122 cfs is considered at Q90, which means flows are higher than that 90 percent of the time. Virtually every river system in St. Louis, Lake, and Cook counties are currently considered in Q90 status.
The Basswood River, which was in Q90 last week, had seen its flow decline by a third in the week ending on Monday. The DNR posts its stream flow data every Monday during the open water season. As of this week, the Basswood River was at 210 cfs, down from 318 the week before and far below the Q90 cutoff of 355 cfs.
The Little Fork River saw a significant drop as well, from 114 cfs last week to just 71 cfs as on Monday. The Q90 threshold for the Little Fork is 90 cfs.
The St. Louis River, which has been in Q90 status for the past few weeks, saw another significant drop in the past week, with a registered flow of 329 cfs, down from 486 cfs the week before. For the St. Louis River, 1,500 cfs would be a more typical flow for this time of year. Anything below 629 cfs is considered Q90 status.
The latest river levels are still higher than during the late summer drought in 2021, when some area rivers virtually disappeared. As of Sept. 19, 2021, the Vermilion River’s flow had declined to an astonishing 8.0 cfs. The Vermilion River’s flow is largely determined by the discharge over the Vermilion Dam, so once the lake level drops below the lip of the dam, water flow in the river can fall to almost nothing.
Lake Vermilion has “gotten crazy low,” in recent days, according to Gretchen Niemeste at Aronson Boat Works. “It seems to be dropping by inches every day.”
With no rain in the ten-day forecast, the water levels are likely to continue to fall for the foreseeable future.