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Apr 2025

Rapid shifts from drought to floods are getting more common

Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Oct 2023

Sudden shifts from droughts to heavy floods are becoming more common as the climate changes according to a new study.
 
The new research Soil moisture−atmosphere feedbacks have triggered the shifts from drought to pluvial conditions since 1980 said that wild swings from severe drought to heavy rains are becoming more common in many parts of the world and feedback loops from the land itself are likely contributing to the trend.
 
The research published in a recent issue of the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment used four decades of meteorological and hydrological data on a global level and found seven regional hotspots around the world where the trend was getting worse: eastern North America, Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, southern Australia, southern Africa and southern South America.
 
There have been many notable examples of the sudden shift from severe drought to heavy and potentially dangerous downpours in recent years. One recent example, in December 2022, California was facing its worst drought in a millennium but this situation was quickly shifted by heavy rains that caused record flooding in January, February and March 2023.
 
There are many factors that can contribute to sudden changes in climate and weather, including the El Niño and La Niña climate patterns and climate change itself. Researchers discovered the land-based feedback loops with the relatively new technique of causality analysis, a statistical technique that can help determine if one factor is directly responsible for another happening. M 
 
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