Drought conditions continue to spread across the US as rain has been virtually absent

Hurricane's Helene & Milton brought record rains across the Southeast and much of Florida, This has been the exception as across the US we have seen very dry conditions for much of the months of September and October. Drought conditions have been spreading from coast to coast and from border to border.

Photo byUS Drought Monitor

You can pull up individual regions at the US Drought Monitor website. Virginia southward to Florida the hurricanes actually brought drought relief with plenty of water to spare after long dry spells especially in the Carolains and Virginia. Meanwhile areas in Southeast Ohio and West Virginia have been in extreme drought or exceptional drought as this areas has been experiencing drought conditions for longer than 6 months.

Photo byUS Drought Monitor

Other areas seeing severe or extreme drought include Southwest Texas, parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Wyoming, Southeast Pennsylania and Southern New Jersey, Also the Northern Great Lakes and the Southwest are seeing well below normal rainfall. 75 percent of the US is under drought conditions. This is in contrast to earlier this year when most of the nation was not experiencing any drought.

Photo byPivotal Weather European Model 10 Day Rainfall Forecast

Weather models show little change in the overall dry pattern. Precipitation in the East from Maine to Florida west to the Plains and Great Lakes is virtually nonexistant for the next 10 days. There are some signs that the jet stream pattern will change late October to early November to a more normal precipitation pattern across the US and that might help relax the dry patter to some extent. Longer range forecasts from the Climate Prediciton Center are not overly bullish for a wet weather pattern developing nationwide.

Photo byClimate Prediction Center

The Climate Prediction Center 3 month forecast from November through January continues to show dry conitions over the Southern US, For the Southeast US this is better news coming off two major hurricanes but the rest of the Deep South, Gulf States west to Texas and Arizona are forecast to see below average preciptiation while above normal precipitation is forecast for parts of the Northern Great Lakes and the Northwest US. The areas in between are shown to have equal chances for above or below normal precipitation.