Climate Change Ravaged the West With Heat and Drought Last Year; Many Fear 2021 Will Be Worse

February 3, 2021

DE BEQUE, COLORADO - AUGUST 27: Land owned by the Dick and Meg Latham and his sister Julia in South Dry Fork was devastated by the Pine Gulch Fire on August 27, 2020 near De Beque, Colorado. The fire burned the land so quickly and badly that in many parts nothing is left but deep ash, soot and stumps of trees and brush that had been there before. "It's like a moonscape," said Amy Latham-Largent, daughter of Dick and Meg Latham. The Latham's family have ranched in South Dry Fork for 70 years and four generations. The Lathams own 250 head of cattle and 2,500 acres of land in South Dry Fork. The family has lost practically all of this acreage, both their own and the BLM land they leased, to the Pine Gulch Fire.. Meg Latham, Dick"u2019s wife said "u201c I have always expected a fire to a certain degree but nothing like this had I ever imagined."u201d It was the perfect storm. The drought. The wind. The insects."u201d (She was referring to an infestation in the spring and early summer where grasshopers ravaged grass fields.) The Pine Gulch Fire has become the largest wildfire in Colorado history burning over 217 square miles of land near Grand Junction and De Beque and eclipsing the Hayman Fire in 2002, a blaze that still ranks among the nation's most intense conflagrations. Sparked by lightning on July 31, the Pine Gulch Fire has burned through 139,006 acres of remote terrain in western Colorado. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

If there were any doubts that the climate is changing in the Colorado River Basin, 2020 went a long way toward dispelling them, thanks to yet another year of extreme weather.

Unprecedented wildfires, deadly heat waves, withering drought—the many indicators of the climate mayhem that scientists have been warning about for years—ravaged the landscape, claiming dozens of lives and causing billions of dollars in damage.

Colorado endured an unprecedented wildfire season. And so did California, in some cases burning where the wounds were still fresh from the epic fires of 2018. Utah experienced its driest year ever, and persistent high temperatures killed more people in Arizona than ever before. Monsoon rains that typically bring relief throughout the region were a no-show for the second summer in a row and now are being called the “non-soon.”