Since January 1st, the Twin Cities is 5.47 inches below a normal or average rainfall season. "Every month that goes by we're below normal, so we need more rain to make up the deficit," Assistant State Climatologist Pete Boulay said Wednesday.
Boulay says the Eastern portion of the metro is in a severe drought, which is actually in the middle of the drought scale. While KARE 11 talked to Boulay outside his St. Paul office, it started to rain. It stopped, about 15 minutes later. "So it's nice to see the rain but we would like a heckuva lot more than this," he explained.
Last year at this time we were more than 10 inches above an average rain season. "Last year was a walk in the park compared to what we're dealing with this year. With the lack of rainfall it has been a huge challenge," Neil Ladd said. Ladd is responsible for maintaining the turf for close to 50 soccer fields and an 18 hole championship golf course at the National Sports Center in Blaine.
The NSC relies entirely on Mother Nature for its water. They store rainwater in ditches and holding ponds, pump it in to the fields and course, and then recycle what those blades of grass don't drink. But still, the three holding ponds on site are well below the levels they were at last year.
The operation is massive. There are 75 miles of pipe below the soccer fields and golf course. Right now, they pump out more than 1 million gallons of water a night onto the NSC grounds as they prepare for the largest soccer tournament in the Western Hemisphere, the Schwan's USA Cup in July.
More than 25,000 people will walk the grounds every day for a week. "They have the expectation that these fields need to be in tip-top shape and we're trying our best to make sure that happens for them," Ladd explained.
The golf and turf director also has a message for Mother Nature. "Help us out, whatever you can do," he said before glancing up at the overcast skies above. "You get all excited, you see the clouds and you go okay, there's potential, but we never rely on it," he concluded.
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