Around 16 percent of large-scale droughts over land originate above the ocean and these types of droughts are more extensive and severe than droughts that originate over land.
Hydroclimatology
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Atmospheric Rivers Trigger Heavy Snowmelt in Western USA
A rare atmospheric phenomenon that transports large quantities of water vapor into the coastal watersheds of the western USA is responsible for up to 10–20% of intense snowmelt events in the region.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Sea Level Science Grapples with Uncertainty and Usability
Improved transdisciplinary approaches are needed to ensure that research on rising seas is useful for planning in coastal communities.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Hydrological Footprint of Atmospheric Rivers on Land
Atmospheric rivers that make landfall in the western United States have significant impacts on the surface water balance, sharpening the seasonality of water resources in coastal watersheds.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
If Precipitation Extremes Are Increasing, Why Aren’t Floods?
Improving our understanding of the relationship between changes in precipitation and flooding due to rising temperature is a new grand challenge for the scientific community, argue the authors of a recent commentary.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Precipitation in the Tropics: A New View
The first study to simultaneously investigate precipitation and cloud structures in tropical weather systems concludes observation systems significantly overestimate the height of raining clouds.
Posted inAGU News
Mapping Heat Vulnerability to Protect Community Health
Community leaders and scientists from two U.S. cities are combining public health data and heat maps to prepare residents for climate change–related health risks.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
What Climate Models Get Wrong About Future Water Availability
Models that accurately represent past and present rainfall provide more accurate projections of water availability, a new study suggests.
Posted inScience Updates
Is the Recent Drought on the Colorado River the New Normal?
Understanding Historical Changes in the Flow of the Colorado River; Boulder, Colorado, 24–25 September 2018
Posted inEditors' Highlights
500 Years of Atmospheric River Landfalls in Southwestern USA
A network of tree-ring chronologies has been used to develop the first reconstruction of atmospheric river landfalls on the US Pacific Coast over the last 500 years.