Nothing shows the drought in the American Southwest as impressive as the ruins of St. Thomas. In 1865, Mormon settlers moved to the desert region of what is now Nevada to settle there. They built a church, a school, and a general store. When a few years later the border was moved during a land survey and the settlers found themselves in Nevada instead of Utah or Arizona, they moved on. Merchants, farmers and miners settled in St. Thomas - until 1931 construction work on the Hoover Dam began nearby. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the dam that dams the Colorado River to Lake Mead four years later, the pioneer settlement sank in the floods of the largest US reservoir.

St. Thomas reappeared almost 20 years ago. Drought and high temperatures caused the water level to drop dramatically. Every year they exposed more rocks, including the ruins of St. Thomas. Last week, the Lake Mead Land Reclamation Bureau reported a water level of 326.6 meters above sea level, the lowest level since the Hoover Dam was built. Overall, the reservoir, which supplies more than 25 million Americans, has dropped more than 42 meters in the past 20 years. "I've already told everyone to save water, have quick showers, fix leaky faucets, and build decent gardens," said Utah Governor Spencer Cox. “But that won't be enough. We need divine help. So I ask all Utah residentsto pray together. "

In addition to supply bottlenecks for states such as Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California, meteorologists and climate researchers fear even worse wildfires than last year. In 2020, more than three million acres of forest and scrubland in the western United States were hit by flames. California and Colorado recorded the largest wildfires on record. In comparison, things looked good in June 2020. At that time, the drought maps only showed isolated yellow or light orange regions, defined as unusually dry or slightly arid areas. In the past few weeks, however, the United States Drought Monitor's maps have turned ominously orange, red, or burgundy.

Almost three quarters of the southwest has been classified as areas of severe, extreme or exceptional drought.

While the record for the highest level “exceptional drought” in the past 20 years was eleven percent of the area, it has now reached the 27 percent mark.

"The moisture content of the vegetation continues to decline," said the fire and weather research laboratory at San José State University.

Critical values ​​would soon be reached.

"The fire season starts earlier and earlier"

After January, with the lowest rainfall in decades, the Californian Forestry and Fire Protection Authority (Cal Fire) reported more than 2,000 wildfires for 2021: “The fire season starts earlier and longer and continues to drag on. Climate change seems to be an important factor in this trend. ”Higher temperatures in spring and summer, a thinner snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and the earlier onset of snowmelt resulted in a longer and more intense dry season. “In the sierras it dragged on for about 75 days. This extension seems to correspond with the increase in wildfires in California. "

The neighboring state of Arizona has been ravaged by fires for days. During drought, high temperatures and gusts of wind, the "Telegraph Fire" spread over more than 35,000 hectares east of Phoenix. "It is so dry that even the fire engines start a fire," warned the spokesman for the emergency services. The conflagration is already one of the ten largest in Arizona's recent history. The mescal fire also spread over almost 30,000 hectares.

The federal authority for state administration has now issued bans to prevent further fires. Guns are only allowed to be fired while hunting in Arizona, tools such as chainsaws are prohibited in the Grand Canyon State in the open air. In addition to drought, human error also favors the fire season. "About 95 percent of all wildfires are caused by humans," said a spokeswoman for Cal Fire. Missiles and firecrackers should therefore not be fired on the American national holiday on July 4th.