Endless summer: Why is it still so hot?

Hot enough for you? Unusual summerlike warmth is hanging on across much of the U.S., forecasters said, and no real cold is in sight in the forecast.

According to the National Weather Service, "a quiet and relatively uneventful fall weather pattern will be in place across the continental U.S. through early Friday, with high pressure keeping mainly sunny skies in place across the Central and Eastern U.S. and the very pleasant conditions continuing."

And while it might be a bit cooler Thursday in the Midwest and East, don't expect any real relief anytime soon, as temperatures look to stay well above average across the eastern two-thirds of the country into next week, Weather.com reports.

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

Why has it been so warm?

The ongoing warmth is due to the position of the jet stream, which has been unusually far north, AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines told USA TODAY. This has shut off any chilly air coming down from Canada.

How warm has it been? More than two dozen daily record-high temperatures were shattered in the Northeast so far this week, Weather.com said.

In addition, much of the U.S. has been lacking rainfall the past few weeks. The dry ground promotes higher temperatures, he said.

It's staying dry, Kines said, because moisture from the Gulf of Mexico has been cut off, so it can't migrate north into the U.S.

Cooler weekend, then warm again next week

Kines added that there will be bouts of cooler weather over the next couple of weeks that don't last too long.

For example, he said cooler weather is coming to the northern half of the U.S. the second half of this week. But there will be another surge of warmth next week.

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

Big pattern change in mid-November?

Kines said there are signs that a big pattern change could be coming in mid-November, which would lead to a prolonged period of cooler weather across the country.

How dry we are

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

"It has been bone-dry across much of the country for 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. There was also plenty of rain in parts of New Mexico and Colorado from an upper low. That’s been it. The rest of the country has been very dry. We are seeing fronts moving across the country from west to east, but they’re moisture starved.”

According to Weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce, m?ore than two dozen locations east of the Rockies have seen no measurable rain in October.

New York City and Philadelphia stand out in the Northeast, while several cities from Columbia, South Carolina, to Atlanta, Dallas-Forth Worth and St. Louis haven't had measurable rain either.

Philadelphia, New York City, and other cities are on pace for not only their driest October on record but also their driest month ever since records have been kept, dating back well into the 1800s, AccuWeather said.

"The precipitation outlook for the rest of the month doesn't look promising for any measurable rainfall," the National Weather Service office in Memphis posted on X. "This could become the all-time driest October on record for our climate sites."

Coral bleaching event

At a worldwide level, unprecedented ocean heat in many locations pushed an ongoing global coral bleaching event to record levels this summer, according to an August report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch. Extensive bleaching was noted across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, with the “most extreme” accumulated heat stress in August in the west central Atlantic Ocean along the equator.

During the previous record event in 2014-2017, more than 65.7% of the world’s corals experienced bleaching-level heat stress. The current bleaching event passed that mark in May, and as of August had affected 75% of the world’s coral reefs since Jan. 1, 2023.

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

“Every time the temps got perilously close to extreme heat levels, a storm came by and dropped them below the bleaching threshold,” Atwell said. A hold on placing coral from nurseries into the ocean was lifted and planting has resumed.

Arctic and Antarctic sea ice update

Sea ice extent satellite measurements over the Arctic and the Antarctic oceans at the end of September were at near record lows for the time of year.

In the Arctic, sea ice reached its seventh lowest extent in the 46-year record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The amount of frozen seawater fluctuates during the year as the ice thaws and regrows between seasons, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.  Measuring the fluctuations help scientists understand how the sea ice responds to rising air and sea temperatures. In the Arctic, sea ice extent means the total area of the ocean with at least a 15% ice concentration.

In general, the Arctic Ocean has lost 95% of its oldest and thickest ice, the snow and ice data center stated in a recent report. Sea ice extent in September in the Arctic has declined at a rate of 12.1% per decade since 1979.

“Arctic climate warming continues to lead an unfortunate path of change for the planet,” stated an Oct. 3 update.

The maximum extent of sea ice coverage in the ocean around Antarctica, reached in September 2024 in the waning days of the southern hemisphere’s winter, was the second smallest in the satellite record, just above the extreme record low set last year, according to the center.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Endless summer weather? Why it's still so hot and dry.