Wildfires burn across drought-hit U.S. Northeast
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Wildfire impacts several forests in New York state Sunday morning as it was announced that a N.Y. state parks employee died fighting a fire in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., the previous day. Photo: Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
Firefighters across the Northeastern U.S. are tackling a series of wildfires that are impacting air quality from New York City to Philadelphia during an abnormally dry fall.
The big picture: Much of the region is in drought and the National Weather Service warns dry and windy conditions "could lead to fires over portions of southern New England, upstate New York and northern New Jersey, where Red Flag Warnings and an Elevated Fire Weather Outlook" were in effect for Sunday.
State of play: Officials confirmed the death Saturday of an 18-year-old N.Y. State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Department employee who was fighting the Jennings Creek Fire in the Greenwood Lake area of New York — one of hundreds of wildfires that ignited across the Northeast this fall.
- NOAA data shows last month was the second-warmest and tied for second-driest October on record for the U.S. Several cities have seen record rainless streaks. Philadelphia was finally set to get measurable rainfall after 43 days and D.C. saw rain after 38 days on Sunday.
- But as rain fell across the Northeast Sunday, officials warned the precipitation was unlikely to have much impact on many of the fires.
Zoom in: Firefighters were battling one large fire each in New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania in addition to a series of smaller fires, with New York City crews putting out two blazes in Brooklyn's Prospect Park over the weekend.
- "This has been a historically dry time for New York City and more than 100 brush fires have occurred this month alone," per a New York City Fire Department post on X.
- N.J. Forest Fire Service chief Bill Donnelly said at a news conference the forecast precipitation was "not going to solve the problem" of the Jennings Creek Fire, which was burning over 3,000 acres from New Jersey into N.Y. state at 10% containment Sunday evening.
- "It's inevitable that this fire is going to continue to burn up until it reaches our control line," he said, per ABC News.
- Meanwhile, Southern California's Mountain Fire that ignited in dry conditions with gusty Santa Ana winds last week had burned across nearly 20,600 acres at 7% containment Sunday evening, per Cal Fire.
Zoom out: Parts of every state except Alaska experienced at least moderate drought during the first week of November, per the U.S. Drought Monitor.
- About 153 million people live in areas under drought conditions in the U.S. and 88% of the contiguous United States had at least abnormally dry conditions as of Thursday — the highest number in Drought Monitor's 25-year history.
Between the lines: Over the long term, increasing temperatures from human-caused climate change are increasing the odds of drought conditions across much of the U.S., and making them more severe when they do occur, per Axios Generate co-author Andrew Freedman.
- This year is likely to be Earth's hottest in at least 125,000 years.
- Climate change is a key factor in more instances of critical fire weather across the U.S. and other parts of the world and it's leading to more frequent and larger fires that are more difficult to control.
Go deeper: Extreme wildfires doubled in frequency, magnitude since 2003
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
