How has climate change influenced drought throughout the United States? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of Hydrometeorology hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated novel findings regarding drought outcomes in certain parts of the United States. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand how climate change impacts regions differently and how communities can prepare to go forward.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data obtained from the Palmer Drought Severity Index combined with Global Historical Climatology Network station data between 1901 and 2022 to ascertain the connection between drought and increased rainfall during that period. The primary motivation behind the study was to address a longstanding knowledge gap regarding why the Northeast U.S. has been experiencing less drought compared to the rest of the U.S. despite warming temperatures from climate change.
In the end, the researchers found that both drought frequency and intensity was down 59 percent and 19 percent from 1984 to 2022 compared to 1901 to 1983. The researchers attribute this to increased rainfall in the Northeast U.S. compared to the rest of the country, the latter of which has experienced increased drought due to climate change, but they caution about the risks, too.
“The Northeast has always had, and will continue to have, droughts,” said Dr. Erich Osterberg, who is a professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Dartmouth College and a co-author on the study. “A year ago, over one-third of the Northeast experienced severe or extreme drought, with major impacts on farmers and water supplies. The good news is that these damaging droughts have become less common and less severe due to more rainfall. The bad news is that the higher rainfall has increased the frequency and impacts of severe floods.”
What new insights into climate change and drought in the United States will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Journal of Hydrometeorology, EurekAlert!