A large-scale, high-intensity and long-term heat wave enveloped most of the western United States. On the 16th, the temperature in many places hit the highest record in the same period.This is a worrying sign for an area in a historic drought that has just recovered from last year’s devastating wildfires. With the arrival of the fire season again and the severe shortage of water resources, local farmers and urban water managers have been worried.
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Picture from NOAA
As of June 15th, more than 26% of the western United States is experiencing extreme drought (exceptional drought), which is the most intense drought level considered by the United States drought monitoring agency, and nearly 98% of the western United States is experiencing some degree of drought. Before this round of droughts that began in November, at any time in the past 20 years, the largest percentage of extreme droughts in the western region was only 12%.
In other words, the most extreme drought in the western region is more than twice as high as at any other time in this century. Not even including the research of the past two years, the Southwestern region was the driest period in more than four centuries between 2000 and 2018. This is the source of all discussions about the mega-drought: it is defined as a long-term drought that lasts 20 years or more.
From Montana on the U.S.-Canada border to California and Arizona on the U.S.-Mexico border, areas where more than 40 million people live received high-temperature warnings on the 16th. The temperature in more than 200 areas has or may break the previous high-temperature record of the same period or Record of the duration of high temperature weather. As of the 16th, the “Telegraph Fire” in Arizona has burned more than 600 square kilometers, and the “Robertson Dro Fire” in Montana has also expanded to 85 square kilometers. At the same time, there have been many large-scale wildfires burning in these two states, and thousands of residents have been evacuated.
On the drought monitoring map in the United States, Arizona, Nevada and Utah have entered a state of “extreme drought.”
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