Lincoln, NE (KICD)– The latest Drought Monitor was released Thursday morning by the USDA showing some slight improvement to some of the harder hit areas of Iowa.

The main focus is in the northeastern corner of the state where the worst drought category, D4 Exceptional Drought, was introduced last week covering parts of five counties has now been reduced to D3 Extreme Drought. There is still a small spot of D4 showing up this week in Eastern Tama and Western Benton Counties near Cedar Rapids.

In Central Iowa, portions of Story and Boone Counties have improved from Moderate Drought to being abnormally dry since last week.

In the local area, there is no change from last week, despite some areas picking up an inch or more of new rain over the weekend. We still find Pocahontas, most of Buena Vista and Southeastern Palo Alto County in a D2 Severe Drought with the remainder of the nine counties in Northwest Iowa sitting in a D1 Moderate Drought.

Southwest Minnesota also saw no change between updates with Northwestern Nobles County considered to be in a Severe Drought while southeastern areas of that county along with Jackson County sit in a D1.