Kasha Patel: A warmer world causes extreme drought and rain

[Linda Poole]

In yesterday's Washington Post, Kasha Patel wrote:

Intense drought and heavy rainfall events occurred more often in the last eight years — the hottest years on record — than in the previous decade, according to a new study released in Nature Water on Monday. Warmer global temperatures are increasing the extent, duration, and severity of these extremes, the authors found, and are having more of an effect than natural climate patterns.

She presented findings of Matthew Rodell and Bailing Li in a new study released in Nature Water:

The team found extreme dry and wet events have been increasing since 2002, but the most intense events have been occurring more frequently since 2015 — when Earth began its run of record-breaking warm years. An average of four extreme events occurred each year since 2015, compared to only three annual events over the previous 13 years.

Read the full story here.