Heat wave in West will exacerbate drought, a vicious climate feedback loop

More than 30 million people are under heat warnings and advisories. The National Weather Service says the risk level for this heat wave is “very high” — dangerous for not just those with underlying health issues, but the entire population, especially those who work outdoors. The overnights, which in some places will only drop to the mid-80s, will bring little relief.

As temperatures climb to the triple digits, the sun will bake out what little moisture there is in the ground, worsening the West’s unprecedented drought. Scientists say heat and drought are inextricably linked in a vicious feedback loop that climate change makes even harder to break: heat exacerbates the drought, which in turn amps up the heat.

Three of the states entirely in drought conditions are also at the center of this weekend’s heat wave: California, Nevada and Utah.

Death Valley in Southern California is forecast to reach 130 degrees or higher on Sunday and Monday, within stones throw of the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet — 134 degrees at the same location in 1913.

Kern County, California, about a three-hour drive west of Death Valley, is expected to reach triple digits as well. Juan Flores grew up in a family of migrant farm workers in Kern. He worked in the grape fields in sweltering conditions on summer breaks, and remembers a previous extreme drought in 2011, when many migrant farm workers — including his parents — struggled economically.

“With the drought, you’re going to have less crops, and because you’re going to have less crops, you’re going to need less people,” Flores told CNN, “and then all of a sudden, folks are going to be on unemployment benefits, but those benefits don’t last forever.”

Although his parents are in a better economic situation, Flores said many migrant farm workers will still bear the brunt of climate change-fueled economic challenges as severe weather events become more frequent and more extreme.

“We’ve got to talk about a national emergency, especially in Kern County, because we’re considered the fruit basket of the nation,” said Flores, who is now a community organizer with the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment, a national environmental justice group.

Kalansky said strong storms that draw moisture from the Pacific Ocean, often referred to as atmospheric rivers, are crucial in determining whether California is going to end up in drought. In the last two years, however, only one such storm brought precipitation to California this winter.

The heat and the water shortages hit farming communities from several angles.

“When you have high heat in these in agricultural communities, it can be very dangerous and hard to work outside too,” Kalansky said. “So that’s kind of a double whammy.”

Adding insult to injury, Kalansky also warns that extreme heat, low humidity and the historic drought are a recipe for another destructive wildfire season.

“It primes the environment where if there is an ignition, it’s really dangerous in terms of fire because the fields are so dry,” she said. “And then if you add winds to it, that’s when you really get these very dangerous conditions for wildfires.”

As temperatures continue to surge, Kalansky said that these extreme weather events are merely a preview of what’s to come if the world continues to spew planet-heating emissions.

“I would be thoughtful of how to mitigate the impacts now, in an equitable way, especially for communities that are most impacted,” she said. “It’s something very important to think about now and that will serve well, because this is likely to happen again in the not too distant future.”