Almost the entire United States faced drought conditions during the last week of October. Only Alaska and Kentucky did not have at least moderate drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a record in the monitor’s history. The past four months were consistently warmer than normal over a wide swath of the country, said Rich Tinker, a drought specialist with the National Weather Service. But in June, while roughly a quarter of the country was dry to some degree, he said, now 87 percent of the nation is.

Other drought/weather articles:

• Weather West blog: “Inside slider” systems to bring drier and windier conditions into mid-Nov, with rising SoCal wildfire risk
• Newsweek: US drought map shows which states are worst affected
• San Francisco Chronicle: California fire weather warning: Strongest offshore wind event in years is on way
• SFGate: California braces for severe wildfire weather. Bay Area could see worst risk
• The New York Times: Strong winds have California bracing for wildfire weather
• The Denver Gazette: October 2024 pushed near ‘record warmest’ ever in Denver