Water Year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, was especially dry in Roswell, a southern New Mexico town notorious for an alleged UFO crash landing in 1947. The community received just 63% of its normal precipitation, with about half of it falling in a single July storm. The dearth of moisture, combined with unusually hot summer temperatures, sent the region into severe drought.
And then, après ça, le déluge: On Oct. 19, a series of storms hammered Roswell with as much as 4 inches of rain in a single hour. By day’s end, 5.78 inches had fallen, an all-time record. Water rushed through town, washing away cars and submerging buildings. Two people died and hundreds needed rescuing. In many ways, this was a microcosm of yet another whiplash-inducing Western weather year.
OREGON
90.7°F
Average maximum temperature in Eugene, Oregon, in July 2024, more than 6 degrees higher than the 1990-2020 normal.
103°F
Maximum temperature in Salem, Oregon, on July 5, breaking the previous record set in 1960 by 4 degrees.
CALIFORNIA
32,000
Approximate number of people left without power in Northern California in mid-October after high wildfire hazard forced Pacific Gas & Electric to shut down its lines.
ARIZONA
339
Number of confirmed heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, Arizona, this year as of early October. Another 336 fatalities were under investigation.
WYOMING
185,000 acres
Combined extent of the Pack Trail and Elk fires in western and northern Wyoming as of Oct. 21, when Pack Trail was 62% contained and Elk only 48%. The blazes broke out in September, blanketing the region with smoke for weeks and forcing ranchers to evacuate along with thousands of cows.
In early October, for example, when Wyoming normally sees its first snow, ranchers were forced to truck thousands of cattle to safety as a fast-moving wildfire raged through the tinder-dry Bighorn, Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests. Even as the Southwest’s high country was aglow with fall’s brilliant yellow aspens, the lowlands sweated through broiling July-style temperatures. Instead of the scent of piñon wafting from northern New Mexico woodstoves, the air smelled of yet more freshly cut hay as the growing and irrigating season dragged on and on.
Last winter was scarily dry in some areas, while elsewhere enough moisture fell to begin healing the wounds inflicted by 20 years of mega-drought. And nearly every corner of the West experienced a warmer-than-normal summer, with Southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix suffering through heat waves and triple-digit temperatures well into October.
1.6 inches
Amount of rain that fell in Death Valley, California, in February 2024, more than three times the normal monthly amount. It caused flash flooding and enabled kayakers to frolic in what is usually a dry lakebed.
36 days
Number of days this year that Death Valley’s
temperature reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
Weather is not climate, and, taken in isolation, the events of the last 12 months might not be extraordinary. But when considered together, against the backdrop of extreme weather across the globe — which experienced its hottest summer on record for the second consecutive year — 2024 provides yet another signal that human-caused planetary heating has come home to roost.
+8.3°F
Degrees the average October temperature has increased in the past 50 years (1974-2023).
2,218
Number of daily high temperature records tied or broken in the West in a single month, between Sept. 20 and Oct. 20, 2024.
The climate is likely to grow still warmer, and the weather even wackier. Or, as climate scientists put it in the research journal BioScience in October: “We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis.”
70
Number of days this year, as of Oct. 1, when the maximum temperature in Phoenix reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. The previous record was 55 days, set in 2023. Phoenix also shattered the previous record for the latest date of 110 degrees or higher, reaching 110 on Oct. 7.
SOURCES: National Weather Service, National Interagency Fire Center, National Centers for Environmental Information, Southern Nevada Health Services, Maricopa County, BioScience, Western Regional Climate Center.
Data visualization by Jennifer Di-Majo/High Country News
This article appeared in the December 2024 print edition of the magazine with the headline “A year of wacky weather.”
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