Muggsy Gallagher didn't realize just how deep into drought Northern Illinois had sunk until he heard a farmer hoping for a former foe — hail.

"That's when farmers need their therapists," said Gallagher, a sales agronomist for Hintzsche Fertilizer in Minooka.

According to the National Drought Mitigation Center's national drought monitor, as of Tuesday, Grundy, La Salle and Kendall counties were shown as being in a moderate drought.

Overall, about two-thirds of the state was in moderate to exceptional drought. Counties in the southern tip of the state fared the worst, with just under 9 percent of the state in the extreme or exceptional drought categories, the most serious on the drought condition scale.