see a medical provider so you can be properly examined and perhaps tested for strep. there are numerous non-strep reasons for a sore throat like viruses or environmental reasons (like the dryness you mentioned) but causes cannot be blindly determined based solely on a posted description of the problem. because of nerve pathways one can get ear pain from a problem in the throat. or a person can have more than one medical problem at the same time (a sore throat and an ear infection).
i have a sore throat and beginnings of an earache. i feel fine otherwise but it's very very hard to swallow. for the last three days i've woken up to a sore throat in the morning. i thought it might have been dry because of the change of seasons and maybe because the air is dry. it went away through the course of the day. except today. and it's starting to make my left ear hurt. what do i do?