Drought still lingers in central Illinois despite a lot of rain that ushered in July.

Ed Shimon at the National Weather Service in Lincoln indicates from June 29 until just after the Fourth of July, several inches of rain drenched Illinois.

Shimon indicates of the issue with the rains of the last week and a half is that there were just too many downpours and that created runoff. While it is good creeks and rivers were replenished a little bit, we still need more rain.

Looking into the remainder of July and the rest of the summer, there's still an above-normal precipitation signal which has Shimon optimistic we may break out of this drought sooner than later.