Despite more than two inches of rain last week, much of Southwestern Indiana remains in an "exceptional" drought, according to the latest maps released by the U.S. Drought MonitorThursday morning.
In fact, compared to last week's recordings, more serious drought areas still expanded this statewide this week, though southwestern region of the state continues to be the driest.
Still, a state climatologist says Indiana has now "turned a corner" and conditions should improve.
The state is now in the slow process of recovering from this summer's drought with the help of rain, said Ken Scheeringa, the associate state climatologist for Indiana.
"Even though the map is showing some worsening in some parts of the state, I think overall we've turned the corner," Scheeringa said. "The forecast is looking more encouraging to have some rainfall, so that I think we are now going to be on the upswing and hopefully get some improvement pretty soon."
In Evansville so far this month, 2.72 inches of rain has fallen at the Evansville Regional Airport, according to the National Weather Service. That includes 2.31 inches on Aug. 2. The classification of "exceptional" drought — the agency's driest distinction — covers all of Vanderburgh, Gibson, Posey and Warrick counties. The new ratings are released each Thursday.
August has already eclipsed last month's total of 2.34 inches of rainfall. But for the year, Evansville has only gotten 28.69 inches of precipitation, according to weather service statistics, which is more than a foot below normal.
According to the Drought Monitor archives, portions of the region have been designated as drought areas since May and have been classified as an "exceptional drought area since late June, when only 0.15 inches of rain officially fell in Evansville for the month -- making it the driest June on record, according to the weather service.
Scheeringa said it will take "quite a bit of rain" to end the drought.
"It's going to take a while before it all disappears," he said.
Scheeringa said the report shows that the drought is widening, but he said two to three weeks of "good rainfall" would improve the ratings. However, he said evaporation and runoff after a rainfall can decreases the effectiveness rain can have in helping end the drought.
Suzannah Couch of TheStatehouseFile.com contributed to this report.