The New York region is facing a series of fires of rare intensity in the northeastern United States. The cause is a particularly long period of drought, which puts a strain on water reserves. “The reality is that the drought we are experiencing is just an example of the impact of climate change on our territory today, not in the distant future, but here and now”New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy said during a press conference on Wednesday (Nov. 13).
Since Friday, firefighters from New York and New Jersey have been fighting the fires that have burned thousands of hectares around the Jennings Creek forest river, an hour’s drive from the skyscrapers of Manhattan. The fires led to the death Saturday of an 18-year-old New York state parks employee, likely killed by a falling tree while participating in the operations.
Driven by winds and favored by very low humidity, the fires have multiplied since the beginning of October and have already burned about 4,500 hectares in New Jersey, compared to an average of 1,600 each year at that time. The great city of New York is not spared. Firefighters, some aboard a boat, were battling a large brush fire in the vast Inwood Hill Park on the northern tip of Manhattan on Wednesday night.
save water
The lack of rain doesn’t help. While Hurricane Helene devastated entire regions further south in late September, killing at least 101 people in North Carolina, New York and its surrounding areas experienced no significant rainfall during the months of September and October, nor in November. “It has been more than twenty years since we measured such a drought episode in the northeastern United States”Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Local authorities have asked the population to save water. New Yorkers’ 8.5 million are asked to report any open fire hydrants, shower more quickly, and only flush toilets if necessary. Barbecues have also been banned in public areas, and fires, quickly controlled, also broke out this weekend in Prospect Park, the great green lung in the heart of Brooklyn.
New York is supplied with water through reservoirs along the region’s rivers, which reached 62% of their capacity on Wednesday, compared to 79.2% in normal times. “Unfortunately, these unusually dry conditions seem unlikely to end any time soon, as all signs point to a very dry winter ahead.”declared the governor of New Jersey.
Like Phil Murphy, other officials have attributed this drought to climate change. According to Brian Fuchs, a drought episode is not entirely unusual in the northeastern United States. “But temperatures are higher due to climate change. And these higher temperatures may contribute to droughts not seen in the past.”he explained to AFP. “Every time we go more quickly from very humid periods to very dry periods, and vice versa”he added.
