(ORDO NEWS) — According to a study conducted by NASA based on observations from the GRACE satellite system, the intensity of extreme droughts and precipitation has increased dramatically over the past 20 years.
Severe weather conditions are increasingly leading to extreme events such as crop failures, damage to infrastructure, and even humanitarian crises and conflicts.
Global warming has already led to an imbalance between rainy and dry periods: precipitation falls in showers and leads to floods, and heat sets in for a long time and leads to drought
According to a NASA study, the intensity of extreme droughts and rainfall has increased dramatically over the past 20 years.
The overall picture was obtained on the basis of data from the GRACE satellite system, which is used to measure changes in the Earth‘s water reserves: ground and surface water, ice and snow.
“Global precipitation and drought intensity correlates well with global average temperatures,” says Matthew Rodell, lead author of the study.
The close relationship between these climate extremes and rising global mean temperatures means that continued global warming will increase rainfall and droughts.
The researchers studied 1,056 events from 2002 to 2021 using a new algorithm that estimates how much moisture in a particular area of the Earth is above or below normal.
Most affected areas
The heaviest rainfall occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. Extreme precipitation events were also observed in central and eastern North America in 2018-2021 and in Australia in 2011-2012.
Record droughts occurred in the northeast of South America in 2015-2016. In the Cerrado region of Brazil, the drought began in 2019 and is still ongoing.
The drought continues in the southwestern United States. It has already led to dangerously low water levels in the two largest reservoirs – Lakes Mead and Powell.
The number of droughts exceeded the number of showers by 10%. Their geographic dimensions and duration practically coincided.
The study notes that critical infrastructures such as airports and wastewater treatment plants have been designed to withstand natural disasters that occur once every 100 years.
But they are already struggling to cope with the new conditions as these extreme events occur with increasing frequency and intensity.
“Looking to the future, in terms of water management and flood control, we must anticipate that extreme rainfall will continue to be intense and droughts will intensify,” said Richard Seeger, a climatologist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. at Columbia University.
According to the US National Integrated Drought Information System, 20% of annual economic losses from extreme weather events in the US are already due to floods and droughts.
A sharp swing between severe drought and flooding, dubbed the “weather whip”, is becoming a common occurrence in many regions.
The United Nations has said that Somalia is experiencing the longest and worst drought on earth. The drought has already led to the death of millions of livestock and famine.
Venezuela, a country that has endured years of political and economic crisis, resorted to a nationwide blackout due to drought in April 2016.
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