Not Just East Coast, Nation Having Super Dry October, Drought Expanding

October has been remarkably dry in the United States
and it's showing. Every area in yellow is abnormally
dry, and all areas in various shades of orange 
are currently in drought.

 According to the latest weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday, half of the Lower 48 is now in drought, up from just 20 percent three months ago.  

 Eighty percent of the nation is at least abnormally dry, if not in drought. That's up from a little less than half the Lower 48 three months ago.

All this might seem strange, given how there's also been plenty of catastrophic floods lately.  

 With the exception of the Roswell, New Mexico area, virtually all those floods occurred before October arrived.  It seems like the water has been shut off.

The dry weather is certainly widespread this month. New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Little Rock and Houston are among the many places that had no rain in October, at least through Wednesday.  

Climatologist Brian Brettschneider said at two thirds of the way through October, the Lower 48 was on pace to have its second driest month on record. Only October, 1952 was drier. That is, of course, if it stays dry. 

At least part of every state in the Lower 48 is regarded as abnormally dry, if not in drought. 

For the final week of the month, forecasts hint at somewhat wetter times for some areas of the United States, but certainly not all of them. The Pacific Northwest looks like it will be wet for the rest of the month, and some areas of the Midwest and near the Great Lakes could see some decent, but not overwhelming rains by Halloween. 

But other areas will stay dry. That includes much of the eastern United States

DRY NORTHEAST

Drought and abnormally dryness indeed expanded in the Northeast this week compared to last, but not as much as I would have guessed, given the continued lack of rain, the U.S. Drought Monitor said Thursday. (They regard the Northeast as everything from West Virginia and Maryland up through Maine).  

Despite as dry autumn, northern Vermont is still
OK in terms of groundwater and such. Southern
Vermont is regarded as abnormally dry
with a small area of drought in the far
southern part of the state.

Nearly two-thirds of the region was in drought or at least abnormally dry as of Thursday, up about three percentage points since last week. 

Here in Vermont, things remained virtually unchanged since last week, with the southern third of the state regarded as abnormally dry and a small area straddling Bennington and Windham  counties in far southern parts of the state in drought.

Ground moisture and such remained adequate in the northern two thirds of the Green Mountain State, despite the lack of huge amounts of rain. 

 Repeated light rainfalls in northern Vermont in September and October, following a very wet summer has kept us in fairly good shape for now. 

The rainfall outlook through Halloween is unimpressive. Most of the Mid-Atlantic states and southern half of New England are forecast to remain rain-free through October 31, while northern New England is in for a trace to a quarter inch of rain as we go through the remainder of the month. 

There are hints of a pattern change that could make things somewhat wetter in the Northeast as we head into November, but that remains to be seen. 

At least we're not getting flooded out here in Vermont for a change, right?