Drought conditions improved in some areas and became more entrenched in others in Alabama over the past week.

That’s according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which releases a look at drought conditions nationwide each week.

This week’s report for Alabama showed the worst-of-the-worst drought, called “exceptional” drought, holding tough in parts of north Alabama but backing off in others.

And parts of south Alabama that had been stuck in extreme drought for weeks improved a bit as well.

However, the majority of Alabama was still either in some stage of drought or on the verge of it — and the forecast for next week likely won’t lead to any improvements, according to the National Weather Service.

According to the latest Drought Monitor report:

* 4.79 percent of Alabama is in Level 4 of 4 (or exceptional) drought, down from 5.97 percent last week.

* 42.28 percent of Alabama is in Level 3 (or extreme) drought, down from 50.75 percent last week.

* 82.95 percent of the state is in Level 2 (or severe) drought, an increase from 80.27 percent last week.

* 98.64 percent of Alabama is in Level 1 (or moderate) drought, which is unchanged from last week.

Nearly all of the rest of the state is in Level 0 drought — or on the verge or drought, according to the report.

Only 0.44 percent of Alabama is not considered to be in drought, which is unchanged from last week.

Alabama did get some rain in the past week. Here is the observed rainfall over the past seven days from the National Weather Service. Some of the driest spots in north Alabama got an estimated 2 to 3 inches:

It doesn’t look like there will be a good chance for drought conditions to improve over the upcoming week.

The seven-day precipitation outlook from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center shows Alabama should expect an inch of rain — or likely less — over the next week.

The next Drought Monitor report is scheduled to be released next Thursday.