National Drought Worsens, As We In Vermont Are Getting Drier Too

As of this week, 87 percent of the Lower 48 is abnormally
dry or in drought. That's the most since at least the
year 2000. Only areas in white are not too dry. 

A drought across most of the United States has continued to worsen.  

This week's U.S. Drought Monitor, issued Thursday morning, now shows that 87.16 percent of the Lower 48 United States is abnormally dry or in drought. That's the greatest percentage since this drought monitor started in 2000.

A full 54 percent of the Lower 48 is in drought, which is affecting about 150 million people. 

The reason, of course, was the lack of storminess in October. Preliminary data suggests the Lower 48 might have had its third driest October on record. Only central Florida, which dealt with Hurricane Milton on October 9-10 and northeastern New Mexico, which endured destructive flash flooding on October 19 were notably wet. 

Several cities in the Northeast, South and Midwest had no measurable rain in October. 

Finally, some good rains are in the forecast for a large swath of the nation's middle from northern Texas to the central Great Lakes starting now and continuing for the next few days. 

But of course, given that we always seem to have extremes in this age of climate change, some of the rain is much too much of a good thing. Parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri appear poised to go from drought to flood in the next few days as five to eight inches of rain are in the forecast. 

I guess a silver lining is that rivers are so low in that region that the inevitable flooding from this storm will not be as bad as it would have if there wasn't a pre-existing drought. 

NORTHEAST 

Wildfire in Monson, Massachusetts on Friday.
Fires are getting worse in the Northeast due to 
a long and getting longer dry spell. 

In the Northeast, which covers the zone from West Virginia and Maryland to Maine, drought and dry conditions expanded quite a bit. That's not surprising given the past week has had little or no rain in the region. 

Last week's report had 64 percent of the region as abnormally dry or in drought. That figure zoomed up to 79 percent this week. Areas in drought went from 29 to 28 percent in that week. 

Most of the Northeast is expecting little rain in the next seven days, with some areas seeing no rain in the forecast at all.  

Wildfires - ongoing for weeks - continued to worse in the region, especially Friday, when dry, gusty winds swept through.  Some were taking on some characteristics of those big western fires we often see on the news.

Eight homes were evacuated in Rockaway Township, New Jersey Friday due to a fast-spreading wildfire. At last report, it looks like firefighters saved those homes. 

During a typical Massachusetts October, about 15 wildfires break out. This October, the state endured at least 200 of them during the month. 

On Friday, a very large forest fire was burning around Monson, Massachusetts and firefighter were working to protect several homes in the area. 

VERMONT 

Most of Vermont is  now considered abnormally dry
due to an ongoing rainfall shortfall. The small orange
areas in far southern Vermont represent drought. 

Here in Vermont, abnormally dryness expanded exponentially. Last week, only southern Vermont was regarded as "abnormally dry." Now, the only areas not considered dry like that are most of the Champlain Valley and parts of the Northeast Kingdom. 

Personally, I'm feeling lucky because as I poke around in the gardens, ground moisture here in St. Albans still looking OK. 

Not exactly sopping wet but so far not much to worry about. I even got a few brief showers that left a few hundredths of an inch of rain Friday afternoon.

Not much, but given the weather pattern, I'll take what we can get. 

Drought in southern Vermont ticked upward a bit, too. It now encompasses about half of Bennington County and a few corners of Windham County.

Rainfall in Vermont is forecast to be pretty paltry, too. Especially in southern Vermont where they need it the most. As of Saturday, the seven day rain forecast had totals ranging from nothing in the southern half of Vermont to maybe a quarter inch at most along the the Canadian border.

We need a lot more rain than that. But long range forecasts keep us dry into mid-November.