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Welcome to the twenty-eighth edition of the Climate and Health Outlook from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE). The Climate and Health Outlook is an effort to inform health professionals and the public on how our health may be affected in the coming months by climate events and provide resources to take proactive action. This edition provides forecasts for drought, wildfire, and winter weather in December 2024 as well as how to protect yourself and others’ health from these climate hazards including with the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). This webpage includes additional resources and information excluded from the PDF summary, including regional prospective forecasts.
Download the Climate and Health Outlook for December 2024
If you’d like to receive the Climate and Health Outlook each month, please subscribe to OCCHE Alerts.
OCCHE and the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) launched the Climate and Health Outlook Portal to accompany this publication series. This tool features interactive maps with county-level heat, wildfire, and drought forecasts for the current month along with county-level data on individual risk factors that may make people more vulnerable to negative health outcomes from these climate hazards. OCCHE plans to update the tool with new features including additional climate-related hazard and risk factor data and welcomes user feedback on how it can be improved—please email us at OCCHE@hhs.gov to let us know what you think.
Visit the Climate and Health Outlook Portal
Image source: https://scenarios.globalchange.gov/regions_nca4
U.S. Seasonal Forecast for Health: December 2024
Regional forecasts for drought, wildfire, and winter weather:
Alaska: Normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for Alaska. Alaska is forecast to remain drought-free.
Northwest: Drought is forecast to persist in parts of Oregon and Idaho. Drought removal is forecast in parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for the Northwest.
Southwest: Drought persistence is forecast for portions of southern and eastern California, southern Nevada, portions of western and northern Utah and Colorado, and across portions of Arizona and New Mexico. Drought development is forecast in portions of southern and eastern California and southern and central Arizona. Above normal significant wildfire* potential is forecast for portions of southern CA.
Hawai’i: Drought persistence is likely across the Hawai’ian Islands. Normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for Hawai’i.
Caribbean: Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are forecast to remain drought-free. Normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Northern Great Plains: Drought persistence is forecast across South Dakota, much of Wyoming, eastern Montana, southern and western North Dakota, and northern and eastern Nebraska. Drought improvement and removal is forecast in western Montana and northwestern Wyoming. Normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for the Northern Great Plains.
Southern Great Plains: Drought persistence is forecast in northern and central Kansas and western Texas. Drought improvement and removal is likely in portions of Oklahoma and across Texas. Above normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for central Texas.
Southeast: Drought persistence is forecast across Tennessee and Alabama, northern Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida, southern Kentucky, eastern North Carolina and South Carolina, and northern Virginia. Drought development is forecast in portions of Florida and eastern South Carolina. Drought improvement and removal is forecast in Arkansas and small portions of Louisiana. Frost and freeze conditions are expected as far south as the Gulf Coast and central Florida early in the month. Above normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for Mississippi, Alabama, and North Carolina, plus central Tennessee, eastern Louisiana, the Florida panhandle, northern Georgia, eastern Virginia, and most of South Carolina.
Midwest: Drought persistence is forecast across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri. Drought removal is forecast in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in southwestern Missouri. Heavy lake-effect snow is forecast in areas downwind of the Great Lakes (i.e., in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana). Normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for the Midwest.
Northeast: Drought persistence is forecast across Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, southern New Hampshire and Vermont, most of Massachusetts and Maine, eastern New York and Pennsylvania, much of Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, and across portions of West Virginia. Drought improvement and removal is forecast across portions of western New York, southwestern Pennsylvania, and northeastern West Virginia. Heavy lake-effect snow is forecast in areas downwind of the Great Lakes (i.e., in Pennsylvania and New York). Above normal significant wildfire potential is forecast for Delaware, large portions of Maryland and New Jersey, and southeastern Pennsylvania.
*Smoke from wildfires can impact health hundreds of miles from site of the fire.
Drought forecasts are derived from NOAA’s Official Drought Outlook, wildfire forecasts from the National Interagency Coordination Center, and winter weather forecasts from NOAA’s Monthly Temperature Outlook and Monthly Precipitation Outlook.
You can learn more about climate hazards, the ways they impact health, and resources to protect yourself and your community here:
Previous editions of the Climate and Health Outlook are also available.
Thank you to the partners who provide invaluable information, expertise, and data for the Climate and Health Outlook series, including the Administration for Children and Families; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health; Department of Agriculture including but not limited to the Forest Service; Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Climate Prediction Center, National Centers for Environmental Information, National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center, National Integrated Drought Information System, National Integrated Heat Health Information System, and National Water Center; National Interagency Fire Center; Bureau of Land Management; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; United States Geological Survey; the California Air Resources Board; the Oregon Health Authority; the San Mateo County Health Department; the USA National Phenology Network; Atlanta Allergy & Asthma; American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; the Region 2 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit; the California Department of Public Health; the Maricopa County Department of Public Health; University of Nebraska Medical Center; La Familia Counseling Center; Urban Harvest STL; and the National Park Service.