It’s Earth Day, and California Just Experienced its Hottest, Driest March in History

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By Glynn Wilson –

It’s Earth Day on April 22, 2026, 56 years after the first Earth Day in 1970. Much progress was made in preserving the Earth’s environment in that half a century. But it seems like for every two steps we take forward, we fall one step back as American politics sometimes gets in the way of environmental progress.

For the great state of California, where Earth Day began and the most progress was made of any state, the climate keeps reminding us that climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels is very real and only getting worse.

California just experienced the most abnormal March in recorded state history, and the numbers are unmistakable. The state’s average temperature ran 12.6 degrees above normal, making it not only the hottest March California has ever seen, but the most anomalously warm month in state history going back to 1895.

To put it in perspective: last month was warmer than a typical April, warmer than an average May, and as dry as a typical July.

Statewide precipitation came in at less than a quarter inch for the entire month, nearly 80% below the previous driest March on record.

California wasn’t alone. Ten western states broke their all-time March temperature records, including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Across the full contiguous U.S., this March was the hottest in 132 years of recordkeeping, running more than 9 degrees above the 20th century average.

Climate scientists say this isn’t a one-month anomaly. The 12-month stretch from April 2025 through March 2026 was the hottest such period ever recorded for the contiguous United States. The driving force, according to NOAA researchers, is climate change fueled by the continued burning of fossil fuels.

For Northern California, the consequences are already taking shape. Reservoirs are running low. Crops, drinking water supplies, and manufacturing operations all depend on spring precipitation that largely never arrived. And fire weather conditions are intensifying heading into summer, with officials warning that this could shape up to be a particularly dangerous wildfire season.

Scientists say the heat trend is not expected to ease in the coming months. Yet some politicians in Washington continue to deny the facts.

As we reported here first as breaking news, 120 current and former wildland firefighters issued an open letter Tuesday calling on members of Congress to oppose the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in National Forests. 

The rollback of the “Roadless Rule” would remove protections across 45 million acres of national forestlands, opening the door to more road-building and logging in these wild forest areas. The signatories have decades of experience fighting wildfires in U.S. national forests.

Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture is justifying its proposed rescission by saying the rollback will reduce wildfire risk, this assertion is scientifically inaccurate. It is the professional opinion of the wildland firefighters who signed the letter that rescinding this rule will have the opposite effect.

“New roads will mean more human access and more human-caused wildfire ignitions,” they explain in their letter. “Most logging roads in steep backcountry areas are bad tactical ground for holding firelines or staging crews.”

Read the full story here.

Firefighters Issue Open Letter Opposing Federal Plan to End the ‘Roadless Rule’ in National Forests

Active NorCal contributed to this report.