DALLAS — This summer in North Texas has been marked by two things: Heat and drought, and the two seemed to go hand in hand.
That's why Monday's heavy downpours, while they caused severe flooding, was the kind of rain we probably needed.
Now we have an idea of how much the rain helped.
The U.S. Drought Monitor released its weekly update for Texas on Thursday, and most of North Texas saw dramatic improvement in drought conditions over the last week.
Dallas County, for example, went from 100% of the county under "extreme" drought conditions to 0% in that category.
The drought monitor categorizes several drought categories, from lowest to highest: No drought/dry conditions, abnormally dry, moderate drought, severe drought, extreme drought and exceptional drought.
As of last week, around 31% of Dallas County and 88% of Tarrant County were under "exceptional" drought conditions. The exceptional designation, or "D4," is categorized as an area of widespread crop and pasture losses, along with water shortages in reservoirs, streams and wells that can create water emergencies. So, in a nutshell, not good.
Here's the full explanation of each category from the Drought Monitor.
Fortunately, by Tuesday morning, Dallas and Tarrant counties, which saw the most rainfall in the area, were free from exceptional drought conditions.
In fact, no North Texas counties in our surrounding area are in exceptional drought conditions after Monday's rain.
Here's a full rundown of how the numbers shook out for North Texas counties.
(Note: These are broken down by percentages. For example, before Monday's rain, 31.81% of Dallas County was in exceptional drought conditions. After the rain, 0% of the county was under exceptional conditions.)
Dallas County
Before the rain (by percentage):
Abnormally dry-extreme: 100%
Exceptional: 31.81%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-moderate drought: 100%
Severe drought: 47.21%
Extreme-exceptional drought: 0%
Tarrant County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 88%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-moderate drought: 100%
Severe drought: 89.81%
Extreme-exceptional drought: 0%
Denton County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 0%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-moderate drought: 100%
Severe drought-exceptional drought: 0%
Collin County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 25.96%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-moderate drought: 100%
Severe drought: 97.82%
Extreme drought: 20.98%
Exceptional drought: 0%\
Rockwall County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 86.56%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-severe drought: 100%
Extreme-exceptional drought: 0%
Kaufman County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 75.03%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-moderate drought: 100%
Severe drought: 75.42%
Extreme drought: 0%
Exceptional drought: 0%
Ellis County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 98.97%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-moderate drought: 100%
Severe drought: 99.58%
Extreme drought: 23.09%
Exceptional drought: 0%
Johnson County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-exceptional drought: 100%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-severe drought: 100%
Extreme drought: 35.42%
Exceptional drought: 0%
Parker County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-severe drought: 100%
Extreme drought: 99.88%
Exceptional drought: 79.59%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-severe drought: 100%
Extreme drought: 56.16%
Exceptional drought: 0%
Wise County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-severe drought: 100%
Extreme drought: 38.55%
Exceptional drought: 0%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-moderate drought: 100%
Severe drought: 14.92%
Extreme-exceptional drought: 0%
Hunt County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 87.98%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-severe drought: 100%
Extreme drought: 65.16%
Exceptional drought: 0%
Hood County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-exceptional drought: 100%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 0%
Somervell County
Before the rain:
Abnormally dry-exceptional drought: 100%
After the rain:
Abnormally dry-extreme drought: 100%
Exceptional drought: 0%