If you are reading this on the East Coast, congratulations on the warmer weather you’re finally getting this week. It was cold and snowy for a while there. Here in the West, we wish we’d been in your shoes. Spare a thought for the tens of millions of us who live on the other side of the continent, where a catastrophe is unfolding. In Colorado, where I live and grew up, this winter has been especially warm and dry. Last year closed with the warmest December in the history of recordkeeping. It was 8.9 degrees warmer than the average from 1991 to 2020, and the warmest of all in a record that goes back to the late 19th century. Over this past weekend, my neighbors and my family walked with our dogs and our kids in T-shirts and shorts, because it was in the mid-60s in Colorado Springs. About 60 miles north, my family in Denver saw a new record high of 68 degrees—on February 15. But temperatures are not the only reason this winter …