Drought conditions worsened in Alabama in the past week. That’s according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

But there’s a catch: The report was compiled before much of the state got much-needed rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Drought Monitor releases a report on drought conditions nationwide each week. The reports are compiled on Tuesdays and released on Thursdays.

That means that this week’s report was done before much of the state received rain on Wednesday into Thursday. That rainfall will be reflected in next week’s report.

This week’s report shows Level 3 out of 4 (or extreme) drought gaining a slightly bigger foothold in parts of the state.

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In this week’s report:

* Level 3 (extreme) drought affected 4.68 percent of the state, an increase from 1.87 percent last week.

* Level 2 (severe) drought affected 43.18 percent of Alabama this week, an increase from 29.99 percent last week.

* Level 1 drought rose to 97.10 percent this week from 83.48 percent last week.

The hardest-hit areas were in north-central and southwest Alabama.

Parts of Madison and Limestone counties were included in the Level 3 drought areas in north Alabama. In southwest Alabama the counties affected were parts of Marengo, Hale, Greene, Sumter, Perry, Dallas, Wilcox and Washington.

Parts of the state — including some of those areas — picked up beneficial rainfall on Wednesday into Thursday.

The latest rainfall estimates available — from midnight Wednesday until midnight Thursday — show that parts of west Alabama got 2 to even 3 inches of rain:

More of Alabama got rain on Thursday morning as well.

Alabama State Climatologist John Christy (whose office helps compile drought information from Alabama), when asked how much rain would it take to alleviate the drought, replied that:

“This question has as much art as science. The ecosystem is complex so that, for example, shallow-rooted vegetation may need only one or two weeks of 1 inch per week to feel normal. For deep-rooted forests, a longer, sustained rainy period would bring the conditions back to normal for them. When talking about groundwater and base-flow of streams, a couple of months of 1-2 inches per week would bring things back to average. In any case, very heavy, but short-term showers that generate high rainfall totals also lead to high rates of runoff that don’t benefit the deficits in the soil as much.”

The precipitation outlook for next week is a little more promising than it has been of late, showing slightly increased probabilities of above-average rainfall in Alabama: