California (wildfires/drought)

As in recent years, 2022 brought more drought and powerful wildfires to California and other western U.S. states.

Following a rainy autumn in 2021, January and February initiated the driest spring on record (Dress, 2022). By February, the cumulative drought over the past year throughout the southwestern region had been described as the worst in 1,200 years (Fountain, 2022).

Still on-going, the 2022 wildfire season, which began abnormally early in January with the Colorado Fire near Big Sur, has seen a higher number of fires than the average of the past five years. The lack of rain and snowmelt that typically hydrates the land and mitigates fire seasons has also led to water and food insecurity.

Currently, California is preparing for a hotter, drier future and one with fewer water stores and greater fires (California Water Supply Strategy, 2022).

“The heat spells another round of dangerous fire weather for California and much of the West, which has already smashed past previous records for burning; more than 5.8 million acres have gone up in flames already this year.” (Borunda, 2020).

“Five of the ten largest fires in California history are currently burning” (McKibben, 2020).

Read more about extreme weather here.