Scientists talked about the connection between droughts and floods around the world

Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have concluded that droughts and floods around the world are increasingly occurring synchronously and are part of a single climate process. This was reported on January 13 in the journal Science Daily.

According to the work, the key role in the formation of extreme changes in water resources over the past 20 years has been played by the ENSO climate cycle, which includes the phenomena of El Niño and La Niña. These processes in the equatorial Pacific Ocean can simultaneously cause abnormally humid or, conversely, arid conditions in regions separated by thousands of kilometers.

The study showed that ENSO not only enhances extreme events, but also "aligns" them in time, which is why different continents face an excess or shortage of water at the same time. As explained by the co-author of the work, Bridget Scanlon, professor at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the Jackson School of Geosciences, this effect directly affects water availability, agriculture, food trade and global planning.

As part of the study, scientists analyzed the total volume of water reserves, an indicator that includes water in rivers and lakes, snow and ice, soil moisture and groundwater. According to lead author Ashraf Rateb, this approach allows us to better understand the spatial relationships between extreme events, since droughts and floods themselves are rare by definition and provide a limited amount of data.

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The analysis revealed a number of illustrative examples. In the mid-2000s, El Nino coincided with severe drought in South Africa, and in 2015-2016 it was associated with a lack of moisture in the Amazon basin. At the same time, La Niña in 2010-2011 led to record wet conditions in Australia, southeastern Brazil and South Africa.

In addition to individual episodes, scientists have recorded a global shift in the behavior of aquatic systems around 2011-2012. Previously, abnormally wet periods were more common around the world, but after 2012, dry extremes began to prevail. Researchers attribute this to the stable climate regime in the Pacific Ocean, which affects the nature of ENSO.

Despite the limited time-based satellite data covering the period from 2002 to 2024, the results demonstrate that water crises cannot be considered as isolated events. As noted by NASA representative J.T. Rieger, climate fluctuations in the ocean ultimately affect the lives of people on land around the world.

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On December 16, Science X magazine reported on the impact of episodes of "extreme melting" on the Arctic. According to the publication, this phenomenon leads to an acceleration of ice loss in the region. At the same time, it was clarified that the winter accumulation of snow no longer compensates for summer losses.

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