Wednesday's rain is helping drought conditions in the area. Meteorologist Stephen Hrebenach with the National Weather Service says most places got a quarter to a half inch of rain overnight, with another inch possibly falling into Thursday.
"We'll have to see whether that’s enough to maybe improve conditions maybe one category, so instead of being in drought, we'd just be considered moderately dry," he says. "Obviously, any rainfall at this point will help improve the drought conditions."
Hrebenach says most of the Cincinnati area, including Southeast Indiana, has been in moderate drought, or D-1, on a scale up to D-4. Warren County, and points north and east, aren’t as bad.
"Most of Kentucky is in drought. Here within the Tri-State region, conditions have improved somewhat from what they were during parts of November, when they were in severe drought."
He says snow for Christmas is still up in the air.
"The trends right now are looking like it is going to be getting colder next week, so if we get a precipitation moving through at the right time, it's not out of the realm of possibility," he says.
The long term forecast from the weather service calls for above normal precipitation for the rest of the winter.
