FILE – A man runs in silhouette on a bike path in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, as the sun rises over Lake Michigan on Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
A bone-dry October is pushing nearly half of the United States into a flash drought, leading to fires in the Midwest and hindering shipping on the Mississippi River.
More than 100 different long-term weather stations in 26 states, including Alaska, are having their driest October on record, through Sunday, according to records by the Southern Regional Climate Center and Midwest Regional Climate Center. Cities that have had no measurable rain for October include New York, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Sioux City, Iowa, along with normal dry spots such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix, National Weather Service records show.
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“This is on pace for a record dry October,” said Allison Santorelli, acting warning coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. This includes the Southeast, some of which experienced deadly flooding just the month before in Hurricane Helene.
In June, less than 12% of the country was experiencing drought. Now it’s almost 50% and growing, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
That fits the definition of “flash drought,” which is different than normal slowly developing dry spells, said U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey, a drought monitor author. A study last year showed that a warming world from the burning of coal, oil and gas is causing more frequent and damaging flash droughts, such as a $30 billion one that hit America in 2012 and a devastating 2022 drought in China.
In one-eighth of the area of the continental United States, no rain has been reported for the first 28 days of October. About 93% of the continental U.S. is seeing below-average rain in October, most with less than an inch, according to climate center data analyzed by The Associated Press.
Cities like Washington are forecast to hit 80 degrees on Halloween, right after Chicago and Detroit flirt with those summer-like temperatures.
Where has all the rain gone? Bone-dry October strikes much of US
