Also on Fire: The Northeast

The West is usually the focus of news about US wildfires, but the Northeast is currently waging its own fiery battles as a regional drought continues to leave the land parched and ripe for blazes. Axios reports that an "abnormally dry fall" has firefighters hard at work, with a recent warning from the National Weather Service noting that the arid and windy conditions "could lead to fires over portions of southern New England, upstate New York, and northern New Jersey." Indeed, an inferno that straddled those two states took the life of an 18-year-old state parks worker on Saturday as he tried to help put out the Jennings Creek Fire in Sterling Forest, in New York's Orange County.

• Drought: Last month, the Washington Post noted that a "record swath" of the United States had fallen into dry or drought conditions. According to the most recent US Drought Monitor map Thursday, 88% of the contiguous states in the US were considered at least abnormally dry—"the highest number in Drought Monitor's 25-year history," per Axios. About 153 million people reside in the affected areas.

• Other NE states: Other states along the East Coast that have been fighting wildfires of late include Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Fire even found its way into New York City, where firefighters battled two brush fires in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Friday and Saturday.
• West Coast: The other side of the country continues to contend with the Mountain Fire in California's Ventura County, per the AP. That fire was 36% contained as of Monday morning, per Cal Fire.
• Climate change: That's where fingers are pointing to lay at least partial blame for the "hundreds" of wildfires across the Northeast, and elsewhere, this autumn, per Axios, which says climate change is "leading to more frequent and larger fires that are more difficult to control." "Every New Yorker needs to understand that we now live in a time of extreme weather," NYC's Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol tells News 12. "Climate change is real. It's here."
• Rain, rain, don't go away: AccuWeather notes that even though some parts of the Northeast received some rainfall over the weekend, "there is no definitive drought-buster on the weather maps just yet." Thursday seems to be the earliest that part of the nation might see some sprinkles.

(More wildfires stories.)