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With a Third Year of Drought, Southern California Facing a Hot, Dry Summer

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Paul Duginski

Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, is Monday. What’s in store for the upcoming season of beach days and barbecues in Southern California?

To start with, it will be dry. That’s not just because California’s Mediterranean climate means rain mostly falls during a few wet winter months, but because the state is in its third year of drought.

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Unprecedented Fire, Wind and Snowmelt in the Southwest

/in , , /by /High Country Newsby Jonathan Thompson

It is mid-May, and a couple of days ago, the Hermits Peak Fire in northern New Mexico reached 299,565 acres in size, surpassing the 2012 Whitewater-Baldy Fire as the state’s largest wildfire on record. At roughly the same time, on the other side of the state, the Black Fire ballooned from about 5,000 acres to 42,000 acres in a matter of hours. Within a few days, it had more than doubled again.

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