Lincoln, NE (KICD)– The heavy and beneficial rain from late last week has greatly helped the drought conditions in parts of Iowa including at the local level.

The latest Drought Monitor released Thursday morning shows that with exception of Northwest Lyon County and the southern two-thirds of Kossuth County that are still in a D2 Severe Drought, the rest of Northwest Iowa has been upgraded to a D1 Moderate Drought with western sections of Sioux and Plymouth Counties now being noted as abnormally dry.

Around the rest of the state, the bullseye of D4 Exceptional Drought that was in place still last week over the Cedar Rapids area is gone and has been replaced with a D3 Extreme Drought.

Overall, the new statistics show 99.9 percent of the state as at least abnormally dry and 93.6 percent in at least a moderate drought.

Southwest Minnesota also saw improvement since last week with virtually all of Jackson County and Northeastern Nobles County being now being listed as abnormally dry instead of having a moderate drought.