Given the wet nature at the start of July, you might think we were headed to a nice recovery from drought that plagued the start of the summer however, that is not how July played out.

Temperatures for July before the start of a significant heat wave last week were two-degrees below-normal. Ed Shimon at the National Weather Service in Lincoln told Regional Radio that is pretty significant for July.

Not only have the final days of July been rather dry in central Illinois but drought conditions are returning and they are starting to return close to the levels we saw in mid-June.

Looking to August, there could be some stretches of rain but Shimon notes there's not a lot to indicate it will be drought bust rains. We'll hear more from Shimon this week on Regional Radio.