Megadrought ‘taxing’ US water reservoirs and fuelling wildfires

Experts are pointing fingers at climate change, saying it is ‘a long-term tax on the water budget of the west’.

A decades-long climate change-fuelled drought in the western United States is drying reservoirs and contributing to an early wildfire season, scientists say. Flames have scorched more than a million acres (more than 404,000 hectares) across the country so far this year. More than 28,000 fires have burned in 2021 — the highest number of fires at this time of year since 2011. As people turn to air conditioners to survive heat waves, California and other states are warning people to conserve energy to avoid straining power grids.