Climate change is drying out the US West, even when rain pours: Study

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4978861-climate-change-evaporation-drought-study/

Climate change-induced warming is drying out the America West by not only reducing precipitation, but also accelerating evaporation — even amid adequate rainfall, a new study has found.

Evaporation accounted for 61 percent of the region’s drought severity from 2020 to 2022, while reduced precipitation was responsible for just 39 percent of these conditions, according to the study, published on Wednesday in Science Advances.

Historically, drought in the U.S. West was driven by a lack of rainfall, while evaporative demand — the amount of water that the atmosphere can absorb from the Earth’s surface — has only played a small role, the study authors noted.

But climate change caused by burning fossil fuels has brought about higher average atmospheric temperatures and has increased the contributions of evaporation to drought severity, the researchers explained.
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“This study further confirms we’ve entered a new paradigm where rising temperatures are leading to intense droughts, with precipitation as a secondary factor,” Deheza added.

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