The updated U.S. Drought Monitor shows the small sliver of mid-Missouri that was not under abnormally conditions as of last week, now is.
This area includes parts of Montgomery, Callaway, and Cole Counties.
Pulaski, Maries, and Gasconade Counties are still experiencing the driest conditions of the area as they are in a severe drought.
In far southern Missouri, towards West Plains, there is now a small area in an extreme drought.
No areas in Missouri showed improvements from last week.
Luckily, there is a rain chance by this weekend, but unfortunately not much rainfall is expected.
Sunday morning, showers will increase south to north, with the greater rainfall totals towards I-44.
Most areas will only see a light sprinkling.
South of I-70 totals could range as high as .25", but still not enough to see improvements to the drought.
The ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Team will continue to track rain chances and how they could impact the extremely dry conditions across the state of Missouri.

The Sierra Nevada mountains grew nearly an inch taller during the recent drought and shrank by half an inch when water and snow returned to the area, according to new research from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.
They used the differences in height to estimate that 10.8 cubic miles of water were lost from the mountains between October 2011 and October 2015, enough to supply Los Angeles with water for 45 years.
“This suggests that the solid earth has a greater capacity to store water than previously thought,” said Donald Argus, a JPL research scientist.
Mountains give way slightly when snow, water and other precipitation accumulate on the surface, shrinking in height.
When the water is taken away, like during California’s recent drought, the mountains lose water weight, and grow.
As drought conditions sapped the Sierra of water between October 2011 and October 2015, the mountain range rose 24 millimeters, or nearly an inch.
Since October 2015, the Sierra has regained about half of the water lost during the drought and shrank a half-inch.
Scientists often think of aquifers as primarily layered, sedimentary rock, the type in which groundwater is stored, Famiglietti said.
The ability to estimate mountain water by observing changes in mountain elevations will help researchers better understand that.
“It’s an important problem in mountain hydrology, but it’s especially important in regions like California that need to account for every drop,” Famiglietti said.

The new requirements will dictate how farmers obtain, use, and dispose of water for cannabis cultivation and are intended to protect “springs, wetlands, and aquatic habitats from the negative impacts of cannabis cultivation,” according to the state’s new cannabis cultivation policy.
“We do have a core commitment of ensuring that cannabis is the most sustainable crop grown in California,” he said.
And although rain may be a rarity in Southern California, it can be a key—and free—resource for growers farther north.
Systems can be programmed to a cultivator’s specific needs, minimizing the need for human monitoring and watering.
Costs vary considerably depending on type and scale of grow, and can range from the extremely basic—available on Amazon for about $40—to the highly complex and customized versions that cost well into the thousands for hydroponic grows.
Aquaponics You may be familiar with hydroponics, which involves growing plants without soil.
The arrangement eliminates the need for soil for your plants (as well as a filter for your fish tank) and uses a lot less water than many other types of grow operations.
While that water typically is discharged as waste, some cultivators have begun installing systems that capture the condensation and cycle it back into use.
At Southern California-based THC Design, for example, growers captures water from the HVAC system and dehumidifiers at the facility.
“Are we watering enough?

CAPE TOWN – France has offered the Western Cape assistance with the drought afflicting the region, French Consul-General Laurent Amar said on Wednesday.
“It is too early to give details but we could absolutely engage on this and help to avoid disaster and also to find long-term solutions, first by providing finance and investment,” Amar said at a meeting with editors from Independent Media.
He said the finance would likely come from the French Development Agency, adding that it was ready to work with municipalities in the province.
“We could also provide technological solutions through our companies.
We have strong experience in the field of water treatment,” Amar added.
He said there had been an exploratory meeting with Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille this week, and that France was serious about helping the region find ways to stabilise water supply.
Ambassador Christophe Farnaud confirmed that “our companies have already been in touch with the local authorities”.
The mayor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment, but De Lille in an interview last month confirmed that the city was looking to the French Development Agency, the German Development Bank and local banks for funding for water augmentation projects after having used R2.6 billion from its own coffers so far.
The city council this week approved plans to introduce a water levy that would be weighted on the market worth of individual properties to supplements it finance for water projects.
It has come under criticism from the African National Congress, in opposition in the city and the province, for not acting sooner despite researchers warning more than a decade ago that the region was heading for a dire water crisis.

Another 27 million trees died in California last year due to the lingering effects of drought, according to new aerial survey data from the U.S. Forest Service.
In a typical year, about one million trees die across California.
“The trees have been weakened and under a lot of stress and we have these beetle populations that are doing well,” he said.
Drought often kills trees indirectly.
By depriving them of water, trees become weakened and unable to ward off diseases, fungus or bark beetles, which are always present in the forest but explode in numbers when trees are unable to fight them off.
Last winter, more rain and snow fell on parts of the Sierra Nevada than in the previous four years combined.
The lower rate could also be a result that so many trees have already died, so there’s just not much left to be killed, said Stephanie Gomes with the U.S. Forest Service’s tree mortality task force.
Indeed, this year’s data shows species with lower death rates in the past are dying in different parts of the state.
Previously, the hardest-hit species and regions of California were pines at lower elevations in the Southern Sierra Nevada, where the highest temperatures sucked water out of soil, depriving trees of what little moisture existed.
“As fire suppression costs continue to grow as a percentage of the Forest Service’s budget, funding is shrinking for non-fire programs that protect watersheds and restore forests, making them more resilient to wildfire and drought,” Randy Moore, Regional Forester of the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, wrote in the news release.

Cape Town – France has offered the Western Cape assistance with the drought afflicting the region, French Consul-General Laurent Amar said on Wednesday.
He said the finance would likely come from the French Development Agency, adding that it was ready to work with municipalities in the province.
"We could also provide technological solutions through our companies.
We have strong experience in the field of water treatment," Amar added.
He said there had been an exploratory meeting with Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille this week, and that France was serious about helping the region find ways to stabilise water supply.
Ambassador Christophe Farnaud confirmed that "our companies have already been in touch with the local authorities".
The mayor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment, but De Lille in an interview last month confirmed that the city was looking to the French Development Agency, the German Development Bank and local banks for funding for water augmentation projects after having used R2.6 billion from its own coffers so far.
The city council this week approved plans to introduce a water levy that would be weighted on the market worth of individual properties to supplements it finance for water projects.
It has come under criticism from the African National Congress, in opposition in the city and the province, for not acting sooner despite researchers warning more than a decade ago that the region was heading for a dire water crisis.
African News Agency/ANA

Cape Town – The Western Cape DA has appealed to the national government for more drought relief funds after Level 6 water restrictions – that will further curb water for farms – were announced to come into effect on New Year’s Day.
The drought levy will be introduced in February, pending a public participation process.
“An estimated 50 000 jobs in the agricultural sector are set to be lost, amounting to a revenue loss of about R4.9 billion,” she said.
She said the Western Cape Department of Agriculture had already spent R67m in 2017 to support 1300 smallholder and commercial farmers.
“Through budget adjustments, R10m has been allocated towards boreholes for agriculture in Matzikama, and R2m for water tanks for communal use on farms in the province.
"We have also set up food gardens across the province to ensure food security in rural communities.
This is money well spent to protect our farmers and rural residents against the drought,” A report by Statistics South Africa on the national gross domestic product’s third quarter performance indicates that agriculture’s contribution to our national GDP has increased by 44.2%, she said.
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said the introduction of the drought levy would not reduce the water-use.
“For one simple reason: households are the least users of water supply, at 12% of the total water consumption,” he said.
@JasonFelix jason.felix@inl.co.za Cape Argus

CAPE TOWN – The heatwave is reaching its peak on Thursday with Vredendal expected to be hottest with a high of 46ºC and Cape Town reaching 39ºC.
Similar temperatures will also affect the Cape Winelands, West Coast District and the western interior of the Northern Cape.
For a period of hot weather to be considered a heatwave, the unusual heat must persist for three days or more over the same area.
In this case, the high heat began on Wednesday for the areas near the west coast and continues until Friday.
READ: Heatwave heading to Cape Town Although Friday will be slightly cooler, it will still be hot enough over these areas to be considered a heatwave.
This changes over the weekend as milder weather is expected, but the region remains dry.
In addition to a normal summertime circulation pattern settling over South Africa, a strong high pressure in the upper atmosphere is causing stable, stagnant conditions over the western parts.
The same system also enhances heating and results in a sharp spike in temperatures.
eNCA

Lonoke County lifts prohibition as state still 4 to 6 inches below normal.
Drought conditions are widespread across the state, and Arkansas is still well below average for rainfall.
Burn bans had been put in place since Nov. 25 in Pulaski, Lonoke and White counties, where drought persists.
Lonoke County Judge Doug Erwin lifted his burn ban on Tuesday morning after the overnight storm.
Pulaski and White counties have kept their burn bans in place.
Meteorologist Dennis Cavanaugh of the National Weather Service in Little Rock said the overnight rain, while a welcome relief, won’t go very far in helping get the state back to normal rain levels and end the drought.
“Rainfall from the storms that moved across the state will probably not have a significant impact on drought conditions because we received anywhere from one half inch to two inches of rain across the state.
The rainfall deficit just from November across Arkansas ranged from four to six inches below normal for most locations, so our one half to two inches of rain doesn’t even make up most of that,” he said.
Adriane Barnes, director of communications for the state Argricultural Department, which includes the Forestry Commission, said on Tuesday there were no wildfires burning in Arkansas and that 50 counties still had active burn bans in effect.
Locally, Pulaski, Lonoke and White counties remain in moderate to extreme droughts.

The next 100 years could see Auckland’s average temperature increase by 3.75C along with an increase in floods, superstorms, coastal erosion and wildfires.
A Niwa report released today revealed the Auckland region’s climate will get hotter and the weather more volatile over the next 100 years.
Average temperatures would also increase by up to 3.75C by 2110.
At a presentation of the report this afternoon, Niwa’s chief scientist for climate, Sam Dean said while this wouldn’t equate to extreme changes to our climate, it would require us to change aspects of our lifestyles and design of the city.
And that presents challenges for infrastructure in responding to that," he said.
Auckland Council’s Head of Strategy and Planning at Auckland Emergency Management Craig Glover said climate change would impact us all in some way, shape or form.
The list goes on and on."
It looks at the impact climate change would have on different environments and sectors within the Auckland Region in terms of water quality and soil changes as well as on our coastal communities and biodiversity through sea-level rises and increased sea surface temperatures.
A "mid-range scenario" looked at what would happen if emissions were to stabilise, while a "business-as-usual scenario"saw emissions continue unabated.
Chief engineer Sarah Sinclair said the key thing was acting now to mitigate changes as they happened.