Now that late spring/early summer is upon us, there’s increasingly more headlines about less rain in various places (recent floods notwithstanding). I’m assuming that’s because water is evaporating and not returning to those places, but where is it going?

Is it arriving, now, in these bursty flash floods? Is it staying longer in the atmosphere and moving to new locations? Is more of it just staying in the atmosphere period?

  • @[email protected]OP
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    86 months ago

    Cool, that’s more of what I meant when I said “where is it going?” I didn’t think it was disappearing; I more meant, “Where is it being stored or released?” Makes sense why there would be more of it when precipitation does show up, given that hotter air can store more.

    I’m still curious, though, if certain local patterns are moving off to other locations. I’ll have to look into that aspect, now that I kind of have an idea what to look for.

    • @[email protected]
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      26 months ago

      There’s been talk of some crops being able to be grown further north or south. But most of the weather patterns of a region are a function of proximity to ocean, predominant winds, and topography. It’s important not to confuse weather and climate. For a given drought or flood people may want to point to climate change as a cause, but it’s only going to amplify patterns that already existed.