New Mexico's drought is finally easing.
Kerry Jones of the National Weather Service's Albuquerque office says the drought isn't over, but the recent wet weather has made big dents in it.
The weather service says nearly a quarter of the state has shifted from severe drought to moderate drought and an additional 16 percent of the state has dropped to severe drought from extreme drought.
And no part of the state is in the most severe drought category — exceptional — for the first time since April.
Albuquerque received 3.41 inches of rain in July. That's 80 percent of what the city's gets during an average entire monsoon, and some parts of the metro area got up to 4 inches of rain this week.
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