Periods of Intense Drought and Precipitation on the Rise

NASA has published a new study that confirms major periods of intense drought and precipitation have been occurring more often globally and at higher levels of intensity. After examining 20 years of data from the NASA/German GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites, researchers observed the period of 2015 to 2021 contained four extreme wet or dry events per year, compared to the prior 13 years’ average of three events per year.

The intensity of these events was closely linked to the global rise in temperature caused by global warming, as that same period saw seven of the nine warmest years on record. The most intense precipitation event seen during this period is the ongoing four-year pluvial in central Africa, which has caused Lake Victoria to rise over a meter. The most intense drought event was the 2015-2016 Brazilian drought, leading to water rationing. Read more at NASA.