When Hurricane Francine made landfall last week in Louisiana, there was hope that some of the rain from the storm would help battle Alabama’s drought.

The latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor was released on Thursday, and it shows where Francine’s rain helped with the drought — and where it did not.

The Drought Monitor compiles a look at drought conditions nationwide every week. The report is created on Tuesday and released on Thursdays. Drought conditions are classified from D0 (abnormally dry) to D4 (exceptional drought).

The overall picture is that most of Alabama remains in some level of drought.

However, there were some substantial gains in the past week.

* The percentage of Alabama in Level 2 (severe) drought decreased from 43.03 percent last week to 7.58 percent this week.

* Level 1 drought fell from 99.70 percent last week to 65.70 this week.

* The area in Level 0 drought (classified as “abnormally dry”) decreased ever so slightly from 100 percent last week to 99.16 percent this week.

* There was also a slight increase in the area considered not in drought — it went from zero last week to 0.84 percent not in drought this week.

But the news wasn’t all good. A small area of Level 3 (extreme) drought in north Alabama grew slightly from 0.34 percent last week to 0.64 percent this week.

Francine and its remnant circulation brought rain to parts of the state starting on Wednesday and lasting into last weekend.

Sept. 14 and 15 had the biggest amounts, but only for parts of the state.

The Drought Monitor noted that daily-record amounts for Sept. 14 totaled 4.72 inches in Muscle Shoals and 3.63 inches in Birmingham.

Here’s the National Weather Service’s daily rainfall plot for Sept. 14 (last Saturday):

Here’s the observed rainfall from Sept. 15:

The rain has since ended for most of the state, and the rest of the week will have lower rain chances, according to National Weather Service forecasts.

Rain chances aren’t expected to climb — and they won’t climb much — for parts of the state until about a week from now.

However, there is hope for some rain in the not-so-immediate future. The Climate Prediction Center’s six- to 10-day precipitation outlook suggest Alabama will have elevated chances for above-average rainfall from Sept. 24-28 (next Tuesday through Saturday):

Forecasters will also be keeping an eye on the Gulf of Mexico next week, when a tropical depression could form and track northward: