Thanks to some timely rains late in August, the large swath of Illinois was battling drought through much of the summer and was just in time according to one National Weather Service official.

On the WHOW Morning Show Tuesday, Mike Albano from the National Weather Service in Lincoln told Regional Radio rains late in August came just in time to rescue a good portion of central Illinois from drought conditions that were hampering a good portion of the state.

According to Albano, the drought still lingers in the far western portion of Illinois but areas from eastern DeWitt County to Champaign, Piatt, and Vermillion County have seen an easing of drought conditions.

Getting in the fall season, above-normal temperatures and below-normal rainfall signals are setting up in the midwest. 

High temperatures for late September and early October tend to be in the 70s while that time frame tends to be one of the dryer times of the year. Albano indicates it won't be surprising to see less than a couple of inches of rainfall this fall unless we see the remnants of a tropical storm make their way into the midwest.