At Burning Man, the Weather Can Feel Biblical. Will Climate Change Make It Even Worse?

“In some ways, this felt a little bit like ‘Building Man,’” said Keasberry, an Oakland resident who has been going to the festival since 2016 and now co-leads a camp called The Heart Collective.

This year, the sandstorm was followed by several days of rain and near-triple-digit heat. And multiple years of this kind of extreme weather on the playa — including the torrential rain that created a “mudpocalypse” in 2023 — have caused some attendees to question whether to return to Black Rock Desert. They’re also wondering if human-caused climate change is threatening the viability of future burns.

From the outside in — or even the inside out — the weather at this year’s burn sure looked biblical. Burning Man officials state clearly on their website to “be prepared for volatile extremes,” including excessive heat, freezing temperatures, swift thunderstorms, up to 70 mph winds and intense dust storms. The Burning Man Project, the nonprofit that organizes the festival each year, did not respond to KQED’s request for comment.

Online, the organization wrote: “In Nevada, there is a saying: if you don’t like the weather, stick around for five minutes and it will change.”

“Only one thing is completely predictable about the weather in the Black Rock Desert: Unpredictability,” they added.

So, how standard is this kind of extreme weather for Burning Man and how much do scientists think climate change could impact (or even cancel) this festival in the coming years?

Jump straight to:

How typical was this year’s wild weather for Burning Man?

Daniel McEvoy, a climatologist at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, said the wind, rain, dust and heat Burners experienced this year were not out of the ordinary for late summer.

“It wasn’t all that unusual,” McEvoy said. “It was just sort of the timing of everything that seemed to happen to coincide right with the first few days of Burning Man.”

The Black Rock Desert is a barren lake bed — and during late August, this place often witnesses a wide range of weather, McEvoy said.