Northwest Iowa (KICD)– Heavy rain over the past weekend may have led to some water issues in some area communities, but local counties also greatly benefitted in the form of improvement on drought conditions.

The new update released Thursday morning show the area of D2 Severe Drought disappearing over Northwest Iowa leaving Buena Vista, Cherokee, O’Brien, Pocahontas and most of Clay, Osceola and Palo Alto Counties in a D1 Moderate Drought. The remaining areas locally have been upgraded to being abnormally dry.

Looking around the state, the D4 Exceptional Drought that has been sitting over parts of Western Iowa has completely gone away leaving Extreme Drought behind. Overall, Iowa saw more than a five percent reduction in area being in at least a moderate drought. The new update also notes that just over half of the state is at least abnormally dry.