Weekend rains largely skipped over the central part of Illinois as drought continues to intensify.

On the WHOW Morning Show Monday, Ed Shimon at the National Weather Service in Lincoln told Regional Radio Saturday night storms really benefitted Illinois north of I-80 and south of Springfield.

Shimon indicates one of the challenges with this drought is the fact we're not getting any moisture and so weather systems need moisture from the ground to help develop a storm and right now there is nothing to draw from on the surface.

There are chances for scattered rains throughout the week this week tho.

So far in June, we are unsurprisingly well below normal for rainfall to the point Shimon says if we don't get some rain this week, the Lincoln office will report the driest June in history.

Shimon points out, the good news is we're trending for a wet start to July. We'll hear more from him on that later this week on Regional Radio.