Intense heat in the southwestern United States broke records last summer partly because it hit in tandem with an unusually severe drought, a new Johns Hopkins study shows.
Intense heat in the southwestern United States broke records last summer partly because it hit in tandem with an unusually severe drought, a new Johns Hopkins study shows. The study measured for the first time how the two extreme weather events dangerously interacted in real time.
Though the drought's impact on that heat wave was modest in general, it increased temperatures by four degrees in some areas, and the researchers say similarly dueling weather events likely drove this year's New Mexico wildfire to historic proportions. Moreover, as climate change advances, these one-two weather punches, called cascades, and their inherent hazards will become increasingly common.
"With more extremes happening, the possibility of an extreme drought plus a heat wave and even a fire, together...the odds are just better that it's going to happen," said co-author Benjamin Zaitchik, professor of earth and planetary sciences. "Understanding how a compound event can lead to a cascade where you end up in a record-shattering situation that can be really damaging for people and ecosystems is something that many climate scientists are trying to understand."
The findings are newly published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Read more at Johns Hopkins University
Image: The major drought that happened in 2021 at the same time as a record-breaking heat wave cause the heat to rise by as much as four degrees in parts of the southwest U.S. (Credit: Johns Hopkins University)
