The south west had an above average rain fall for almost fifty year that ended about the year 2000. Problem is as things go averages are averages for a reason and the last 20 years have been at or below average. Then on top of that populations have exploded in the last fifty years so there is more demand for water than ever. High demand and lower rainfall than average has used up a lot of stored water from periods of plenty.
As to the fires our decision to put out all small fires before they become large fires, has created a lot of areas with so much material to burn that they quickly become these mega events. Perhaps along with sane logging a bit of controlled burns would help but some extreme groups scream bloody murder to either. So we are stuck with large areas at risk for years on end. But in the end you are not going to beat Mother Nature. Fires have been part of the system for millions of years. Modify your environment but you can not change it.
