The wildfires raging across Georgia show what scientists say is the danger of compound climate events — a complex disaster that’s fueled by several extreme weather events at once.
In Georgia’s case, drought, heat and a hurricane all set the stage for the blazes that have burned more than 50,000 acres in the southern part of the state. The fires were only partially contained as of Thursday evening.
September through March marked the state’s driest period on record, according to a NOAA dataset beginning in 1896. Multiple cities went 19 or more days without rainfall between the end of March and the end of April, including Atlanta, Savannah, Macon and Athens. Augusta topped the charts with 40 dry days between March 17 and April 25, a record streak for the state.
That has led to more than 70 percent of the state being gripped by extreme or exceptional drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The last time that happened was in May 2012, according to Georgia state climatologist Bill Murphey.
