The warming climate is causing soils to lose their moisture more quickly, resulting in damaging, rapid-onset droughts
tend to take several weeks or months to appear and last for 40 to 60 days. The increase in flash versions is due to the warming climate, he says.
“Under global warming, the climate’s variability has increased. So, you’ve got more extremes: you can get very heavy precipitation, but you can also get very dry conditions,” says Yuan.Get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every month. Warmer air temperatures also mean water evaporates from soil more quickly, bringing on a drought state sooner, he adds.Although the work suggests that the incidence of flash droughts is increasing significantly around the world, it doesn’t provide data demonstrating the pace of change. But Yuan says the proportion of dry periods that are flash droughts could increase by 15 to 20 per cent between 2050 and 2100, compared with between 1950 and 2000, depending on how quickly the climate warms.
More accurate forecasts would help water companies and farmers conserve water in advance, to protect supplies for the public and food production, he says. Wildlife and plant life may also struggle to adapt to rapid-onset drought, warns Yuan. “For the traditional drought, the vegetation is adapting to the drought event,” he says. But if the drought occurs faster, it isn’t known if the ecosystem will have enough time to adapt, he says.
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