LISTENING: to the fall rains outside
FEELING: sick thanks to COVID
SEEING: my bag of Nerds candy

I was at a wedding Saturday along the New Jersey-New York border. The foliage was perfect. Fiery reds and auburn oranges dazzled the trees. It was something out of a novel, especially for me who has long dreamt of an upstate fall wedding.

As my family and I waited outside for the ceremony to begin, my partner pointed to the forest-covered mountain across the way. Smoke was billowing into the sky. A helicopter was actively scouting the area. "It's a wildfire," my partner said. I hadn't even noticed. Yes, me, the climate reporter who writes about this shit for a living. I was way too excited about my baby cousin's wedding, but once he pointed out the smoke, I couldn't get the wildfire out of my head.

The wedding ceremony came and went. We wept, of course. As we stood up to go inside, I realized the fire was still burning. I remembered a story I wrote for Atmos last year where I investigated the question of whether wildfires could burn here in the Northeast due to our changing weather patterns.

Scientists and experts were clear: Yes, we are not immune to the wildfires that plague the West. Indeed, they're incredibly likely to be a part of our future as the planet warms and drought strikes the Northeast. And if they happen, they're likely to be in the fall — when upstate New York is at its loveliest. My heart sank as I remembered.

Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I'm not ready for that future, not yet.

Can Climate Change Bring Wildfires to the Northeast? | Atmos

Apple TV+’s new sci-fi ‘Extrapolations’ depicts a future where wildfires reach New York. The Frontline explores what the science suggests.

AtmosAtmos

When I wrote that story for Atmos, I was inspired after watching the Apple TV+ show "Extrapolations" where the first episode opens up with the Adirondack Mountains on fire. I interviewed Joseph Charney, a research meteorologist for the U.S. Forest Service, for the piece. He told me that the region has two fire seasons: after the snow melts, before the green comes in the spring, and after an extended dry spell as summer is on its way out and fall sets in.

It's unusual and rare for this to happen now, but a drying climate could make it more likely. The region where the wildfire was burning is abnormally dry, per the U.S. Drought Monitor. As I write this Tuesday, I'm relieved by the rain that's fallen outside, but I can't help but wonder if that smoke we saw is just a glimpse of what's to come.

Maybe the flames are a metaphor beyond the woods. In the U.S., we're a week out from elections. I already cast my mail-in ballot. It should be obvious who I'm voting for, but in case it's not: Kamala Harris. She's far from perfect, but that's politics. The choices always sorta' suck.

Depending on who wins, the planet is sure to burn — from the forests of New York to the wetlands of the Amazon. That should be the real horror story this Halloween.

None of us will be able to escape the flames then. There's still time to prevent that madness. I worry we'll be forced to use a faulty faucet and a leaky bucket to put out fiery blazes fanned by the winds of fascism. But I must breathe and remind myself of the power of people — with enough hands and voices and spirit to put out the flames, we can, right? If we chant and cry and plead to the gods, perhaps they'll give us the rain we need.

Science and polls may say otherwise, but sometimes we need faith. I'm still learning to put my trust in that. 🌀

Rest in Power

While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more disasters like these.