MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) - Drought conditions have not improved very much in Wisconsin as a whole – but the Milwaukee area appears to be doing better.

The state’s largest city is in the midst of its third-wettest winter on record, with 10 inches of liquid precipitation falling in December, January, and February.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says Milwaukee is near the far southern edge of an abnormally dry region which covers much of the eastern half of Wisconsin. But that’s better the moderate and severe droughts the city endured for a good share of last year.

Mark Gehring of the National Weather Service says a March snowstorm and-or frequent spring rains are needed to keep drought conditions from returning to Metro Milwaukee.

Madison is also losing its moderate drought status – but those conditions still apply in over 60 percent of the state. And total land area that’s abnormally dry or worse has hardly changed at all last winter, still at just over 88 percent.

About a dozen east central counties remain the only ones not in some form of drought.