UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain: “It was the driest February on record”
March 3, 2020UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain was quoted in several news outlets about the unusually dry conditions in February 2020 and wildfires in northern California.
Following a dry autumn and winter, some parts of California suffered the driest February in 150 years, raising concerns that the state may be susceptible to increased wildfire risks and another drought.
This February “was not just merely a below-average month,” Swain told The New York Times. “It was, in a lot of places, a completely dry month, which is truly extraordinary.”
A handful of small wildfires broke out in northern California over the past two weeks, which Swain said serves as an indication that California’s wildfire season is essentially becoming year-round.
“The main point is not that these fires were particularly large or damaging-because they were not,” Swain told NBC News. “The extraordinary thing is that they are happening at all at this time of year.”
Read more in NBC News and The New York Times
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