The latest maps from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center show where October 2020 is forecast to be much hotter and drier than average in the U.S. It's not a great outlook for the wildfire-affected West.
The September 2020 temperature and precipitation outlook favors a warmer- and drier-than-average September across the western United States, and a wetter-than-average month across the south-central Plains and much of the East.
Hundreds of wildfires burned through over one million acres of land in California in less than two weeks in August. The resulting smoke has not only worsened air quality across the state but spread across the country.
Wildfires across Colorado during summer 2020 has led to the shutdown of the major thoroughfare across the state and billowed smoke for hundreds of miles.
The August 2020 outlook favors hotter-than-average temperatures along both coasts, while tropical moisture is likely to lead to a wetter-than-average August along the East Coast.
July temperatures are favored to be in the warmest third of the recent climate record for much of the U.S. In the drought-stricken Southwest, the odds of well below average precipitation are higher than the odds of an average or wetter-than-average July.
