Walker County and northwest Alabama are still officially lingering in a small drought, while southeast and northeast Alabama have essentially returned to normal.
The lowest level, abnormally dry, is seen over central Alabama and other parts of the state.
However, the middle level of drought, severe drought, continues to hang over a tiny fraction of the southeast corner of the state and over extreme west Walker County, east Fayette County and north Tuscaloosa County, as well as the west tip of Jefferson County.
The Oakman and Townley areas appear to be affected in the agency’s map.
At the start of the calendar year 2017, almost 90 percent of the state was in at least severe drought, half of it had reached at least extreme drought, and 19 percent had been in the worst stage, exceptional drought.
Today, no parts of the state are in the two worst stages, with 44 percent of the state not at any drought level.
A total of 56 percent is at least in an abnormally dry state, while 28 percent is at least in a state of severe drought, which appears to be over two-thirds of Walker County.
In surrounding areas, half of Winston and Cullman counties appear divided between abnormally dry and moderately dry, while most of Marion and Fayette counties are in moderate drought.
The National Weather Service in Birmingham posted on May 4 that beneficial rainfall had started falling the previous week, averaging 1-2 inches.
“This has resulted in stream flows returning to near normal levels across much of Central Alabama for the time of year,” the agency said at the time.