By Anthony Edwards, The Daily

2020 has been a devastating year for climate change in the United States.

Halfway through fall, drought conditions have plagued 92% of the West, with 40% of the area suffering severe drought and 6% in exceptional drought — the most intense rating. Closer to home, 93% of Oregon and 60% of Washington are suffering from drought conditions this autumn.

Despite a near-average snowpack in Washington and Oregon heading into the spring, an extremely warm and dry summer allowed drought conditions to deteriorate.

“Even though we ended up at 110% of median [snowpack] in early April, we actually melted out fairly quickly,” Oregon State University climatologist Larry O’Neill said. “Due to a couple of warm spells at the end of April and early May, the snow season basically started late and ended early.”

Much of the region was left suffering drought conditions which have continued into November. Some of the consequences of drought in the Pacific Northwest include reduced drinking water, higher stress on crops, loss of animal habitat, and increased fire weather conditions.

Looking at a factor known as evaporative demand can give scientists an idea of how bad drought conditions may be.

“If you look at the two-month period between August and September of this year, essentially the entire West was experiencing some of its highest evaporative demand, close to being a record high,” O’Neill said. “These hot temperatures and dry weather were increasing the demand.”

The hot and dry weather ultimately had severe consequences. On Sept. 7, strong winds and hot temperatures prompted the Storm Prediction Center to issue an extreme fire weather warning over the Oregon Cascades.

This was only the second time the warning has been issued in Oregon or Washington and the first time it has been issued on the West side of the Cascades. A day later, the warning was extended across more regions in Oregon.

“The easterly component of those winds were the strongest on record during the summer season,” Washington state climatologist Karin Bumbaco said. “Looking back to 1928, we see most strong winds in the winter, but very unusual in the summer, hence why those fires grew so fast and we were impacted by the smoke and air quality.”