John Towsen and his wife, Riley Kellogg, watched in horror last Sunday as the flames in nearby trees inched closer and closer to their home of nearly five years. Suddenly, they realized they had no choice but to evacuate.
“We didn’t know if we were coming back to the home or not,” Towsen told CNN three days later, as he stood in front of his home in Greenwood Lake, about 35 miles northwest of New York City.
Behind him, firefighters were still dousing the flames that had threatened the neighborhood, leaving behind rows of burnt trees. “It’s kind of miraculous that we do still have a home and we’re very thankful for that,” Kellogg added.
Across the street, she pointed to a home she says was destroyed by a microburst – a punch of sinking air in a severe thunderstorm that could cause damage similar to a tornado – during a severe thunderstorm in May, just one month after a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook their community.
“The disasters that we’ve been experiencing, I hope that they really bring home to people what’s going on, on a global scale,” Kellogg said. “And how, when we see the effects of it on our own lives here, that we really can connect them to what’s happening all over the world and how our actions and our connections and what we do in our governments, how all of this has an effect on our lives directly.”
It’s been a year of unusual extremes for New Yorkers.
In April, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake rattled buildings across parts of the Northeast. Throughout the summer, multiple towns experienced tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service. In July, an EF2 tornado passed through Rome during a severe storm that killed one person and caused widespread damage. An EF1 tornado in Buffalo also damaged buildings and trees and overturned cars in August.
There are currently 13 wildfires across the state encompassing more than 5,000 acres, according to Governor Kathy Hochul’s office. Among the fires is the Jennings Creek/Sterling State Park fire, which tore through areas along the New Jersey-New York border. An 18-year-old New York State Forest Ranger volunteer and state employee died on November 9 when a tree fell while he was responding to the wildfire in Greenwood Lake.
Human-induced climate change fuels more extreme wildfire conditions globally and in the US, providing a stark reminder of how the climate crisis is upending lives and inflicting billions of dollars a year in damage. It will only get worse, according to fire experts.
New York City alone has experienced over 230 brush fires since October 29, according to the New York City Fire Department. A brush fire in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park burned two acres of dry vegetation, spurring firefighters to battle the blaze for more than three hours, the fire department said.
Only 0.01 inch of precipitation was recorded in October in New York City, making it the driest month in the city since record keeping began in 1869, a spokesperson for the New York City Emergency Management Department told CNN.
“Central Park normally sees over 8.5 inches of rain in September and October but has only seen about 1.5 inches since the beginning of September,” the spokesperson said. “That’s a huge difference.”
With this lack of rainfall, drought numbers have been increasing substantially across the Northeast. As of November 5, about 55% of the region was under some sort of drought, providing plenty of fuel for wildfires. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for over 50 million people over the past week, including Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
Climate change is fueling the extreme fire season
Record-breaking heat waves, severe floods and wildfires, exacerbated by rapid climate change, are the new normal –- and people should start getting used to unusual and extreme weather, according to climate scientists and experts.
“Everything’s just getting a little wackier. There’s a scientist who called it Global Weirding. Everything’s getting weird,” Stephanie Spera, an assistant professor of geography, environment and sustainability at the University of Richmond, told CNN “Almost every single person can say they have experienced an extreme weather event, whether it be hurricane or tornado or wildfire or blizzard. It’s getting harder and harder.”
Earthquakes, most of which are the result of a slippage of geologic plates sliding past each other, are not correlated to climate change, says Brenda Ekwurzel, the director of scientific excellence at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Recently, scientists have also noticed an increase in tornado reports happening in the Northeast. A record 32 tornadoes in New York have been reported to date in 2024 – compared to 10 in 2023 and 7 in 2022, according to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Scientists are still investigating how the climate crisis may intensify tornado activity. Nonetheless, as climate change has created a warmer, more humid and unstable world, the conditions that produce strong thunderstorms that can form tornadoes are more likely, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
“Without hesitancy, I can say warmer climates create more favorable environments for storms, create more energy for storms, and stronger storms can lead to higher incidence of tornadoes,” Spera said.
While scientists are less confident about climate change’s general effect on severe thunderstorms, they’re more confident it’s driving the unusually warm temperatures that are behind droughts across New York and other parts of the country.
Wildfires are fueled by a knot of factors, both natural and human-caused, but scientists say global warming is fueling more frequent, more intense and severe blazes. Hotter temperatures are the clearest climate change-fueled contributor to wildfires. In part, that’s because heat sucks the moisture from vegetation, making it much more combustible.
Down the road from Towsen and Kellogg, Esler and Maureen VanHouten also watched the fire inch closer to their home. Despite their fear, however, they didn’t leave their community.
“Why would you stay? There’s earthquakes and tornadoes, but it’s your home,” Maureen said. “Something just keeps you here.”
The couple kept looking over their shoulders at the trucks of first responders racing up and down their road. Since the fire ignited last week, they haven’t been able to sleep through the night.
“It’s your home and you’re just so, so scared of what’s going to happen, there’s so much sentimental value,” Maureen said. “Our kids grew up here. I know people say, ‘Oh, it’s just a building,’ but there’s so many memories.”
Tom Howley, the mayor of the Greenwood Lake, said their community is not used to contending with fires of this magnitude.
“We get snow, we get rain, we get fires, but we don’t really get extremes. This is the most extreme I’ve seen,” Howley said.
Now that the region is experiencing an increase in wildfires, people should always monitor warnings for their region, says Ekwurzel, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“These particular wildfires are often triggered by human causes, just carelessness or something sparking something,” she said. “I’ve been getting red flag warnings on my weather app, so I know I’m not supposed to burn a fire, but if people aren’t getting that information, they may be inadvertently starting a little fire and not realizing just how dry the conditions are.”
As humans continue to heat up the world with fossil fuel pollution, scientists warn these kinds of fires will only become more common.
“I have two young kids and I am terrified for what this means for the future with the new administration, rolling back really progressive policies,” Spera said. “I wish people would care and get involved in community organizations at this point, because I don’t know what else is left. Think about these places that you love and want to keep them around for your grandkids.”