After two brush fires scorched acres of land in Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury this week, state and local fire officials are on particularly high alert.

In one of the hottest, driest summers in recent memory, critical drought conditions were declared late Thursday for all seven regions in the state, including Martha’s Vineyard.

The towns of West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah are opening a single cooling shelter at the West Tisbury Library today and tomorrow.

The first full day of the Memorial Day weekend was a washout on the Vineyard, with buckets of rain flooding roads and turning streams into mini rushing rivers. The National Weather Service reported 3.37 inches of rainfall in Edgartown. A backyard weather station in West Tisbury reported four inches.

This has been one of the coldest and rainiest springs in recent memory in the Northeast. Now forecasters say get ready for an active hurricane season.

Stormy weather Friday caused downed tree limbs, scattered power outages and ferry cancellations, and kept Island police departments busy.

The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for the Cape and Islands from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

On Monday night at the West Tisbury Library, Dr. Peter Neilley spoke about our changing climate, its impact on our Island and how modern weather and climate forecasts are made.

A burst of extreme weather passed over Martha’s Vineyard mid-day Tuesday, tossing seas and prompting rare tornado warnings.

The heat wave that blanketed much of the country with soaring temperatures and sticky humidity all weekend did not spare the Vineyard, where hundreds flocked to cooling shoreside places.