For the first time, all of California is rated in severe drought or worse. Severe drought is the midpoint of a five-point scale that starts at “abnormally dry” and ends as “exceptional” drought. Half of the state is in “extreme” drought, a step worse than “severe,” says USA Today.
Firefighters have battled 1,400 wildfires across California so far this year, double the usual total, says the Los Angeles Times, quoting a Cal Fire official as saying the 2013 fire season “rolled into 2014 and continues with no end in sight.” The New York Times says the fire season “in the hot, dry West now lasts roughly 75 days longer than it did a decade ago.” And, it says, “More than half of the largest fires in California history have occurred in the last 10 years, according to state statistics.”