Unum
2025-01-17 05:41:27 UTC
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2464413-severe-droughts-are-getting-bigger-hotter-drier-and-longer/
Dirk Karger at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape
Research and his colleagues identified more than 13,000 droughts that lasted
at least two years between 1980 and 2018 to reveal long-term trends. They
found that, since the 1980s, the most severe multi-year droughts have become
even drier and hotter.
The droughts have also affected a larger part of the globe, with the area
affected by the 500 most severe drought events each year expanding by about
50,000 square kilometres annually. “That’s an area bigger than Switzerland,”
says Karger.
Dirk Karger at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape
Research and his colleagues identified more than 13,000 droughts that lasted
at least two years between 1980 and 2018 to reveal long-term trends. They
found that, since the 1980s, the most severe multi-year droughts have become
even drier and hotter.
The droughts have also affected a larger part of the globe, with the area
affected by the 500 most severe drought events each year expanding by about
50,000 square kilometres annually. “That’s an area bigger than Switzerland,”
says Karger.