Getting Better!As expected, the latest drought monitor continues to show improvement across the Susquehanna Valley! Moderate drought is completely gone in Franklin, Adams, and Dauphin counties. York and Lancaster counties have some moderate drought left, but the area has decreased compared to last week. IMPORTANT - the Drought Monitor only includes data up to 8 AM Tuesday. The data is reviewed with the map released to the public (and to the News 8 Storm Team) on Thursday morning. Any rainfall that occurred after 8 AM on Tuesday (no matter how heavy or light it is) is not included in that respective week's update. So, this update DOES NOT include the rainfall from Wednesday or Thursday. We will need to wait until next week's update for those numbers to be included.How Are We Still In Moderate Drought? Okay, so what gives? We saw improvements, but why are we not completely drought-free for the whole area? After all, we saw several inches of rainfall over the past month and are well above the average for the month of May, and we made up the seasonal deficit for Meteorological Spring, too.The Drought Monitor takes into account several factors, including short-term and long-term drought. Other factors include temperature, precipitation amounts and departures from average, river and stream levels, soil moisture at multiple depths, groundwater levels, and reservoir levels.According to the Drought Monitor's website, the Susquehanna Valley is dealing with the effects of a long-term drought. (map link: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx.) You will see an "L" outlined over parts of the Mid-Atlantic, including the Susquehanna Valley. The problem with a long-term drought is the fact that it is long-term. You need to make up more than just the "3-month deficit" or even the "6-month deficit". However, as WE ARE IMPROVING and if this pattern keeps up, we will continue to see improvements each week.If you would like to check out the data and learn more about the indices used to determine the drought monitor, here is where the News 8 Storm Team gets our data we show during our newscasts.The U.S. Drought Monitor: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Departure from average precipitation maps: https://www.weather.gov/marfc/Precipitation_DeparturesThe drought monitor is released every Thursday. Tune into WGAL News 8 for the latest updates every week during our afternoon newscasts!