Two days of soaking rains in New Hampshire refreshed rivers, streams and lawns and dampened forest floors that have been a tinderbox for brush fires. Even so, it likely won't be enough to take a bite out of the drought that has swept most of the state in the last two weeks, a water expert said Monday.

“Certainly, it's good news. But it doesn't solve our problem. But we would be far worse without it,” James W. Gallagher of the state Department of Environmental Services said.

Most of the state has received two to three inches of rain since late Saturday; isolated areas in the North Country and Upper Connecticut River Valley received up to four inches, said Gallagher, chief engineer for DES' water division.

While that was enough rain to see rivers and streams rise and relieve the extreme threat of brush fires, it probably won't significantly recharge groundwater levels given the amount of water the spring bloom of leaves, grasses and flowers is currently pulling from the soil, he said.

“We're not getting the huge recharge effect in the groundwater levels” Gallagher said.

Groundwater levels have been steadily declining at a significant rate, the DES reported last week. This was a result of the state being four to eight inches below normal precipitation in the last three months. A dry, relatively warm winter left no appreciable snow pack to recharge rivers and streams, according to the DES.

The federal government last Thursday officially ruled the southern two-thirds of New Hampshire to be in moderate drought. It declared most of Coos County “abnormally dry.”

Recent rains temporarily stalled the deteriorating conditions, Gallagher said. Unsettled weather predicted through the rest of the week should bring another one-tenth of an inch of precipitation, he said. But drier than normal conditions are forecast to return next week, he added.

Conditions this year are similar to those that existed through May 2006 when the state suddenly was deluged with heavy rains and flooding, Gallagher said.

“We had a very dry April and very low stream flows and then we had the Mother's Day flood,” Gallagher said, referring to the flooding that occurred in 2006.

The city of Franklin's fire department started issuing fire permits Monday for the first time in a few weeks. The rain did make a significant impact on the dry conditions, Franklin Fire Department Capt. Steve Fecteau said.

“The rain definitely helped,” Fecteau said. “I can't say now what it will be like without more rain by the end of the week, though. This is an unusual year.”

There are no storm systems on the maps that show any potential for bringing another soaking rain to New Hampshire, according to Bob Marine, a National Weather Service meteorologist in the service's Gray, Maine office.

High temperatures will stay around 50 degrees, he said. “There may be some impulses of rain here and there, but no steady rain is in the forecast for the next 10 days or so anyway,” Marine said.