California Drought

California is still in a drought. Even though we did have a period of time where we were considered to not be in a drought due to a good wet season. We have re-entered into a dry season with not enough water being an issue. Not big enough of an issue to be rationing water, but big enough people should be talking about. With a dry season there are a higher possibility of wildfires. As we have seen there have been wildfires before. According to Dr.Swain ¨The drier years will be drier and the wetter years wetter and the state will need to be able to cope.¨

There is evidence that these few dry months could lead to very high temperatures. ¨...some temperatures were 21 degrees higher than the day before in Los Angeles.¨ According to an article by APnews. The drought is also growing fairly quickly according to an article by the New York Post, ¨Drought has just expanded from under ten percent of the state last week... another 43 percent of the state is abnormally dry.¨ In other words the drought is real and growing quickly. The severity of the drought has grown in just a couple of months.

Droughts come with another thing, wildfires. With less rain, means more dry vegetation. With this brings the very real danger of wildfires. According to an article posted by the New York Times, ¨...the average number of wildfire reports during the first two months was 279 calls, putting this year (381 calls) 35 percent above average.” With the droughts before Californians took action and had lowered their shower times, or cut out their lawns. With this drought none of that action is taking place. Instead, we have to wash even more and use more water due to the coronavirus. Now firefighters are telling Californians to prepare by clearing the spaces around their houses of old mess, or high vegetation. Wildfires this year are inevitable. So it is best that we do what we can do to preserve water.

This drought is not the biggest that we have seen, but it is one of the quickest and still has more time to grow. It is necessary to take precautions in order to help prevent mass wildfires and shortages of water. Wildfires can be very dangerous and can start in seconds, but last days. So it is important to conserve water and know your surroundings in order to help with the current drought.