Does global warming bring more rain or less rain, and how the rainfall pattern is changed around the globe?

water is one of the most important resources affecting people’s lives. We need to know how global warming changes the pattern of the rainfall, so the policy makers and governments can plan and implement policies that can mitigate severe problems such as drought or flooding, and infrastructure to distribute water effectively.

2 comments

1. Rob Marchant says:

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   This is one crucial, and often undervalued aspect of climate change particularly affecting population with greatest reliance on the natural capital of the earth. The main driver behind ecosystem distribution, composition and associated services across the tropics is precipitation and not temperature. A proportionally small rise in temperature is relatively low impact as opposed to the large impact that a shorter rainy season or reduction in total rainy season precipitation. We will never stop the momentum behind ‘Global Warming’ but should acknowledge for many ‘Global Precipitation Shift’ is more of an issue and is having a strong impact on ecosystems and associated livelihoods now, in the near future (decade) and will become exponentially more important within the IPPC timeframe.
2. Belouve says:

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   This is a controversial issue. Globally, datas show that global precipitation rates smoothly grow when temperatures grow, but this is not general. In western africa, for instance, climate has developed drier during the twentieth century warming. You’ll find a good map from GISS NASA, on NOAA site, showing the evolution between 1900 and 1980. Areas where precipitations have increased are larger and more numerous than those where they decrease, but on the bigger part of the planet, pricipitation have not changed.

   Nevertheless, rains are not the main problem. Droughts are mainly caused by land and agricultural misuses, forest harming, lack of equipments (wells, drillings, water supply), overpopulation, waste and pollution of water. This is mainly a problem of development and knowledge, and also of political will.