Scientists have predicted that droughts and floods will become more frequent and severe as our planet warms and climate changes, but detecting this on regional and continental scales has proven difficult. Now\u00a0a new NASA-led study\u00a0confirms that major droughts and pluvials \u2013 periods of excessive precipitation and water storage on land \u2013 have indeed been occurring more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the study\u00a0published March 13, 2023, in the journal\u00a0Nature Water<\/em>,\u00a0two NASA scientists examined 20 years of data from the NASA\/German GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites to identify extreme wet and dry events. Floods and droughts account for more than 20% of the economic losses caused by\u00a0extreme weather events in the U.S.\u00a0each year. The economic impacts are similar around the world, though the human toll tends to be most devastating in poor neighborhoods and developing nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scientists also found that the worldwide intensity of these extreme wet and dry events \u2013 a metric that combines extent, duration, and severity \u2013 is closely linked to global warming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From 2015-2021 \u2013 seven of the nine warmest years\u00a0in the modern record\u00a0\u2013 the frequency of extreme wet and dry events was four per year, compared with three per year in the previous 13 years. This makes sense, say the authors, because warmer air causes more moisture to evaporate from Earth’s surface during dry events; warm air can also hold more moisture to fuel severe snowfall and rainfall events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe idea of\u00a0climate change\u00a0can be abstract. A\u00a0couple of degrees warmer\u00a0doesn\u2019t sound like much, but water cycle impacts are tangible,\u201d said Matt Rodell, study co-author and a hydrologist at\u00a0NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center\u00a0in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cGlobal warming is going to cause more intense droughts and wet periods, which affects people, the economy, and agriculture around the world. Monitoring hydrological extremes is important for preparing for future events, mitigating their impacts, and adapting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n