Drought areas improve as heavy rains continue

By Carrie Rose, NEWS 9 Weather Team

Drought conditions continue to improve in much of the country, with the hardest-hit Southeast recovering the most in the past three months. 

Many storm systems have moved through the region since December dumping much-needed rainfall.  Slowly but surely, the worst drought areas are shrinking, but more of these strong systems are needed to continue the trend.

It looks like such another storm is headed through the South the first week of March, and this one should bring significant improvement.  Elsewhere in the South, heavy rains are expected as well as severe weather.

The flip side of this system will be the strong winds and drier weather in west Texas, parts of New Mexico, and the Oklahoma panhandle.  These conditions combine with low humidity's to create high fire danger in a region where drought conditions have returned and are expanding.

Oklahoma sits in between these two extremes, with both wildfires and rain possible in the state over the next week.