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Endless summer weather? Why it's still so hot and dry.

Posted on by Kennedy
Endless summer weather? Why it's still so hot and dry.

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Hot enough for you? Meteorologists say much of the U.S. is experiencing unseasonal summer warmth, with no real cold in the forecast.

According to the National Weather Service, “A calm and relatively uneventful fall weather pattern will prevail across the continental U.S. through early Friday, with high pressure across the central and eastern U.S. providing mostly sunny skies and very pleasant conditions continuing .” “

And while it could be a little cooler in the Midwest and East on Thursday, don't expect any real relief anytime soon, as temperatures in the eastern two-thirds of the country are expected to remain well above average into next week, Weather reports. com.

In fact, October is shaping up to be one of the warmest and driest Octobers on record in parts of the U.S., meteorologists said.

Why was it so warm?

The persistent warmth was due to the position of the jet stream, which was unusually far north, AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines told USA TODAY. This has blocked any cool air flowing down from Canada.

How warm was it? More than two dozen daily record high temperatures have been set across the Northeast so far this week, according to Weather.com.

Additionally, much of the United States has experienced a lack of precipitation in recent weeks. The dry soil promotes higher temperatures, he said.

It will remain dry, Kines said, because the moisture is cut off from the Gulf of Mexico and cannot travel north into the United States

Cooler weekend, then warm again next week

Kines added that there will be periods of cooler weather over the next few weeks that won't last too long.

For example, he said cooler weather will come to the northern half of the U.S. in the second half of this week. But next week it will be warmer again.

“However, it may not be quite as impressive as this week,” he said.

Big pattern change in mid-November?

Kines said there are signs there could be a major turnaround in mid-November, leading to an extended period of cooler weather across the country.

How dry we are

Drought is becoming a concern nationwide with more than 77% of the country classified as “abnormally dry,” the latest U.S. Drought Monitor reported.

“Much of the country has been bone dry over the past 30 days,” said AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno. “We saw excessive rainfall in parts of the Southeast, Florida and the Carolinas from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.” Parts of New Mexico and Colorado also saw abundant rain. The rest of the country was very dry. We see that the fronts are moving from west to east and are starving.”

More than two dozen locations east of the Rocky Mountains had no measurable rain in October, according to Weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce.

In the Northeast, New York City and Philadelphia stand out, while several cities from Columbia, South Carolina to Atlanta, Dallas-Forth Worth and St. Louis also saw no measurable rain.

According to AccuWeather, Philadelphia, New York City and other cities are facing not only the driest October on record, but also the driest month on record, which dates back to well into the 19th century.

“The precipitation outlook for the remainder of the month does not look promising for measurable precipitation,” the National Weather Service office in Memphis wrote on X. “This could be the driest October on record for our climate locations.”

Coral bleaching event

According to an August report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch, unprecedented ocean heat in many locations has pushed a sustained global coral bleaching event to record levels this summer. Extensive bleaching was detected in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, with the most “extreme” heat stress occurring in August in the western central Atlantic along the equator.

During the previous record event in 2014-2017, more than 65.7% of corals worldwide experienced bleaching-level heat stress. The current bleaching event exceeded this mark in May and had affected 75% of the world's coral reefs as of January 1, 2023 in August.

Rain events have helped the Florida Keys this summer, said Scott Atwell, communications and outreach manager at Florida International University in support of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

“Every time temperatures got dangerously close to extreme heat levels, a storm came and dropped them below the bleaching threshold,” Atwell said. A ban on introducing corals from nurseries into the sea has been lifted and planting has resumed.

Update on sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic

Satellite measurements of sea ice extent over the Arctic and Antarctic oceans reached near record lows for this time of year at the end of September.

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, sea ice in the Arctic reached its seventh lowest extent in 46 years.

According to NASA's Earth Observatory, the amount of frozen seawater fluctuates throughout the year as ice thaws and regrows between seasons. Measuring fluctuations helps scientists understand how sea ice responds to rising air and ocean temperatures. In the Arctic, sea ice extent refers to the total area of ​​the ocean with an ice concentration of at least 15%.

In general, the Arctic Ocean has lost 95% of its oldest and thickest ice, according to a recent report from the Snow and Ice Data Center. September sea ice extent in the Arctic has declined by 12.1% per decade since 1979.

“Climate warming in the Arctic continues to drive unfortunate change for the planet,” it said in an Oct. 3 update.

The maximum extent of sea ice cover in the ocean around Antarctica, reached in September 2024 in the waning days of the Southern Hemisphere winter, was the second smallest in the satellite record and was just above last year's extreme record low, the center said.

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