Despite recent rain, a large portions of Minnesota remains under drought conditions

"We have two things going on in the state. We have a short term and a long-term drought," says State Climatologist Pete Boulay.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor report is kind of a combination of both.

"We've had lots of wonderful rain this week, and it kind of created a green veneer out there," says Boulay. "But deep down in a few places, especially like the Mississippi headwaters, and far southwest Minnesota, we're still behind."

In order to get out of it?

"You know, having it cooler and having the rain, that's a good start," says Boulay. "Now if we only could kind of keep seasonable temperatures and have 1-inch of rain a week for the rest of the summer, we'll be good to go."

Boulay says more than 40% of Minnesota is considered abnormally dry, while about one-third of the state remains in moderate to severe drought.

"What didn't help is that really warm conditions we had for the first 10 days of June, lots of upper 80s and some 90s that really dried the landscape out too," says Boulay. "So we need a little bit above and beyond to really erase any deficits. We kind of slowed the slide in the drought a bit with the rain and the cooler temperatures, but not completely stopped it."

There is good news, with some rain expected again Friday afternoon and evening, but the weekend and early part of next week remains dry.