Drought plaguing the Southwest continues, but Colorado saw another week of small improvements, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The biggest improvements have come in the eastern half of the state, while the Western Slope has yet to see the same reprieve.

“Widespread beneficial rainfall, exceeding 1 inch, this past week prompted a 1-class improvement to much of eastern Colorado,” the drought monitor’s weekly analysis explains, and “cooler-than-normal” temperatures over the past week also helped.

Recent rain has brought Denver entirely into “abnormally dry,” after a two-month spell of “moderate” and “severe” drought.

Also, El Paso County is now in “abnormally dry” and “moderate drought” conditions, following some “extreme” drought conditions in mid-May.

“The wet late spring continues to support improving conditions from the Pacific Northwest eastward to the Northern Rockies,” the analysis continues, while the Southwest continues to face unrelenting conditions. “Widespread severe to exceptional drought persists throughout much of the Southwest, Great Basin, and California. Hydropower production concerns at reservoirs in California and Nevada continue due to low water levels.”

Colorado’s snowpack is showing similar stress, with the state at only 70% of the normal snowpack, and the southwest corner of the state has less than half of normal.

Weather forecasts don’t predict a high chance of precipitation for much of the state in the coming week.