Slight Changes to Nebraska's Drought Monitor - KHGI-TV/KWNB-TV/KHGI-CD-Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings

The U.S. Drought Monitor's most recent map shows nearly all of Nebraska remains in extreme or exceptional drought.

An updated map was release Thursday. The map shows slightly more than 97 percent of the state in extreme drought, a slight decrease from last week's 98.3 percent in extreme drought.

However, the map also shows that the exceptional drought classification has expanded slightly in Nebraska over the last week, from 22.53 percent of the state to 23.33 percent as of Tuesday morning.

Nebraska is missing out on the rain brought by Hurricane Isaac, which should bring heavy rains to drought-parched Arkansas on Thursday, and could move into Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio as early as Friday, dumping as much as 12 inches of rain.