Climate Change Primes Storms to Drop More Rain

With rising temperatures, the atmosphere can hold more moisture, meaning precipitation has a tendency to fall at more extreme levels

- Christina Kelso

THE SEVERE STORM system that has inundated the central and southeastern United States with heavy rain and high winds for days fits into a broader pattern in recent decades of increasing rainfall across the eastern half of the United States.

Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for 1991 through 2020 show that the Eastern part of the country received more rain, on average, over those years than it did during the 20th century. At the same time, precipitation decreased across the West.

The sharp east-west divide is consistent with predictions from climate scientists, who expect wet places to get wetter, and dry areas to get drier, as the world warms.