The unusually hot dry summer weather that has gripped the nation will not let up its stranglehold over the next few months, federal weather forecasters said recently, reports Seth Borenstein at the Associated Press. The heartland’s flash drought will linger at least until around Halloween and even spread a bit farther north and east. Experts call it a flash drought because it developed in a matter of months, not multiple seasons. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s outlook for August through October shows that nearly every state likely will have hotter than normal temperatures. Much of the Midwest is likely to be drier than normal, too. In fact, if the weather phenomenon El Nino forms as predicted, that means even more dry weather next winter for the Midwest and North, said a NOAA forecaster. The percentage of the US now suffering from drought has increased to more than 53 percent while the percentage experiencing severe drought or worse rose has risen to 35 percent. All told, 42 states or parts of them have been hit by the drought.
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US forecast: Hot, dry weather to linger into fall. The unusually hot, dry weather that has gripped the nation will not let up its stranglehold over the next few months, federal weather forecasters said Thursday. And that means the heartland’s “flash drought” will linger at least until around Halloween and even spread a bit farther north and east. Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/weather/forecast/story/2012-07-19/hot-dry-weather-forecast-drought/56337478/1
