(Radio Iowa) – It’s been an exceptionally rainy week in Iowa, with some communities reporting record precipitation, breaking rainfall records that have stood for more than a century. State climatologist Justin Glisan says the new U-S Drought Monitor map for Iowa shows improving conditions, with fewer counties indicated as being abnormally dry or in drought.

The entire southern tier of counties is in the clear, along with wide areas of western and southeast Iowa. The worst of the dry conditions, D-2 or severe drought, remain in central and north-central Iowa, with a small patch in the northwest.

This past Sunday’s rainfall set records in several Iowa cities, including Ottumwa, Waterloo, and Des Moines — where nearly three inches fell, breaking a record set in 1908. The new drought map was just released but it’s based on data that’s a few days old, so it’s not taking into account all the rain from Wednesday and Thursday, which was considerable.

October is wrapping up to be the wettest month of 2021, so far, and we’re heading into the driest months of the year. May is typically Iowa’s wettest month of the year while February is the driest.