Any rain in the forecast for Alabama soon?

The forecast for Alabama for the next week is a dry one.

According to NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center, no rain is expected in the state over the next seven days.

That could lead to the worsening of drought conditions.

This week’s report from the U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday, shows that drought conditions were heading in the wrong direction over the past week in some categories:

The report showed that conditions worsened slightly in two drought categories:

* Level 1 or moderate drought increased from 28.35 percent of the state last week to 36.24 percent this week.

* Level 2 or severe drought increased from 0.29 percent last week to 1.59 percent this week.

Level 0 drought (also referred to as abnormally dry conditions) remained the same at 87.50 percent of the state.

No part of the state is in Level 3 or 4 drought, the two most serious categories.

October is typically Alabama’s driest month, and this one may be no exception.

No rain is expected in the next week, and below-average rainfall will also be possible through the end of the month.

Here’s the eight- to 14-day precipitation outlook, which covers Oct. 24-30. It shows that much of south and east Alabama may have a 33-40 percent probability of below-average precipitation. The areas in gray could be near average for rain:

The experimental Week 3 and 4 outlook suggests the probabilities of below-average rainfall could increase to 55-60 percent for much of the state:

The next U.S. Drought Monitor report will be released next Thursday, Oct. 24.