A forest fire raged in eastern Spain on Thursday, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate from nearby villages and sending huge plumes of smoke into the air.

It’s only the second time in history that the ocean salmon fishery has been closed in California, and the decision reflects a major decline in fish populations after the state’s driest three-year period on record.

It has been a rough winter season for many outdoor activities in New Hampshire, but a below-average snowpack is hitting the snowmobile industry especially hard.

Rural areas here have begun facing water scarcity much before the onset of summer. Villagers are going long distances by bullock carts to collect water in plastic drums. Day temperature is already high.

A protest over water shortages in the southern Ethiopian town of Welkite turned deadly when, witnesses say, security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least two people.

A dry January across most of Idaho left the Panhandle with below-normal snowpack and increased drought worries."Notably, the Coeur d’Alene-St. Joe basins received only 38% of normal precipitation for January," according to the Idaho Water Supply Report from the Natural Resources Conservation Service released Tuesday. Nine snow monitoring sites in the Panhandle recorded their driest or second-driest January, the report said.