Is Drought Our Next Climate Crisis?

To paraphrase Bob Dylan, we don’t need a weatherman to tell us that our parched lawns and gardens are an indication that there has been a lack of rain in the past month.

But even we were surprised to learn that almost the entire country is experiencing some degree of drought conditions, making this the most widespread state of drought in U.S. history.

In New York City, which had its driest October since record-keeping began in 1869, officials are telling residents “to conserve every drop of water possible.”

Climate change, which has been bringing record-high temperatures across the country every month this year — especially this past summer — is seen as a key driver of drought conditions.

High temperatures dry out both the atmosphere and the ground, which not only results in less rainfall, but also creates ideal conditions for wildfires, which have been sparking all across Massachusetts in the past few weeks. According to state officials, there are about 15 wildfires in a typical October, but this year there were more than 200 (which brought us that acrid smell of smoke that enveloped our area earlier this week until the direction of the wind changed).

As with everything weather and climate-related these days, our wonderful fall weather has been yet another example of good news/bad news.

Unfortunately, given that the world’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions are failing badly, the bad news of the future promises to become even worse.