(Undated) -- There's been some improvement in Iowa's drought picture. This week's U-S Drought Monitor shows 93-percent of Iowa in drought or near-drought. The severity, however, has eased. The northern half of Iowa remains in severe drought. Most of southern Iowa (including central Iowa) is abnormally dry. A portion (2%) of northwest Iowa is in severe drought. Today's report does not include rain this week.
The National Weather service is not predicting any rain in the next week.
Forecastes expect windy and cold conditions today (Thursday),with northwest winds at 15 to 25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph.
The NWS predicts some sunshine Friday into Saturday with slowly warming temperatures into the weekend. Temperatures return to the mid 40s to mid 50s by Sunday with little chance of precipitation during this time.