This Special Edition Drought Status Update was issued to help answer the question, "What do the recent storms mean for drought in the West?"

Anthony Leroy Westerling with CNAP, a CAP/RISA team, co-authors publication titled, “Spatial and temporal patterns of wildfire burn severity and biomass burning-induced emissions in California.”

Based on California wildfires, this research team develops empirical models to improve burn severity and high-severity patch area maps with vegetation regimes to create efficient wildfire burn severity maps that will improve land use management by policy makers.

The study, published in the Journal of Scientific Reports, reveals that annual expected atmospheric river-related flood damages in the western United States could increase significantly, raising important questions for policymakers aiming to target efforts to more effectively adapt to climate change.

The study reveals that weather patterns are changing in a way that enhances wildfire hazard in California, while the frequency of weather patterns linked to historical floods is not diminishing. These changes exhibit the rising hazards of weather extremes in California’s present and future.