The last few months provide a great example of why you have to be very careful about evaluating drought conditions this time of year.

Just a few months ago, after a dry winter and early spring, the drought situation was very serious. But rainfall picked up from late April to late June, streamflow and reservoir levels started to recover, and the drought emergency was downgraded to a drought warning in parts of the area. But this is the heart of summer and evaporation rates are at a peak, so if you go a few weeks without much rain, it really starts to show. And for the last month or so, most areas have only seen an inch or two of rain, less than half of what's typical.

According to the Climate Prediction Center, we still need 6 to 9 inches of rain, above and beyond what's we'd typically get in the coming months, to officially get out of this drought.