Natural disasters are increasingly happening in quick succession, raising new threats.
Record drought, heat, and floods all create conditions that make large wildfires, like the Park Fire seen here in August, more likely.When Kamie Loeser took over as the director of water and resource conservation in Butte County, in Northern California, she was immediately tasked with navigating a once-in-a-lifetime drought.
Recent wildfires in California have largely followed that pattern. After record-breaking fire years amid intense drought in 2020 and 2021, wet conditions brought mild fire seasons in 2022 and 2023. The Park Fire, along with multiple fires near Los Angeles, shattered hopes for another calm year in 2024.
This yo-yo effect has drenched and parched California repeatedly over the last several years. Torrential rainstorms inundated the state in December 2021, followed immediately by the driest January, February, and MarchThese rapid transitions between extreme weather events are not confined to California. Southeast Texas was hit this summer by Hurricane Beryl, only to see the storm followed immediately by a powerful heatwave.
Research has found that California’s average annual precipitation may stay largely the same as the planet warms, but that climate change is already making that precipitation fall in shorter, more intense bursts, with longer dry periods.“We’ve gotten used to thinking we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario under drought circumstances,” said Yana Garcia, California’s secretary for environmental protection.
“Concentrating precipitation into specific periods—wetter winters, drier summers—is the prime conditions for Valley fever to spread,” Head said. “Giving it more moisture during the growth period and more dryness during its transmission period can enhance both of those processes.”more than 5,000 preliminary cases through the first half of this year, putting the state on track for another record high.
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