N.D. actually still in wet cycle

GRAND FORKS (AP) - A University of North Dakota weather expert says much of the state is still in an extended wet cycle, despite areas of drought.

Leon Osborne, a UND professor of atmospheric sciences, said an extended dry spell can happen in the middle of a long-term wet cycle. He said the state's current wet cycle goes back to 1977.

"Just like in 1988, the drought is a short-term phenomenon relative to the long-term climate," Osborne said. "If we were out of this wet phase of the climate cycle, these droughts would have much more of an impact."

Osborne said the current drought pattern actually started setting up in November, and he expects the rest of the summer to be drier than normal. The dry pattern could continue next summer, but the long-term wet cycle could last until 2010 or 2015, he said.

"Just as you go through any type of phase, you will peak, but you still have to go down the down slope," Osborne said. "We're probably in the down slope phase.

"I would not be surprised that, two years from now, we're above normal precipitation again, but maybe not as much as we were in the mid-1990s," Osborne said.