The latest Drought Monitor map from the US Department of Agriculture shows that the summer's drought has continued to ease in the past week. Here's the new map, out this morning. 

Although more than 90 percent of Maryland remains at least "abnormally dry," as measured by rainfall, stream flow, soil moisture and satellite measures of the health of vegetation, the proportion of the state's land area still experiencing drought conditions has fallen dramatically, from 78.8 percent a week ago to just 31.2 percent this week.

The regions still in moderate drought include Southern Maryland, from southern Prince George's and Calvert counties south to Charles and St. Mary's, as well as the southern portions of the Eastern Shore, roughly from Cambridge and the Choptank River south and east to the ocean and the Virginia line.

For the first time in many weeks, there are no signs of "severe" drought anywhere in Maryland, down from 7.4 percent last week and 55 percent the week before that.

The slow recovery comes too late, of course, for many Maryland farmers, who have lost much of their harvest for the year. As the graph above shows, drought is by far the most common cause of crop loss in Maryland. An agricultural drought disaster has been declared for the entire state. But suburban lawns, at least, have begun to green up again, and the summer buzz of lawn mowers has returned to the land.