People haven't just made the planet hotter. We've changed the way it rains.
From record-breaking deluges and tropical storms to drought-stricken landscapes that erupted in wildfire, the nation seemed to lurch from one weather-related disaster to the next.
You’re forgiven if you dismiss these events as unrelated, albeit unfortunate, phenomena. But they actually share a common bond – they’re all part of a new climate reality where supersized rainfalls and lengthening droughts have become the norm.
Rising temperatures don’t just make the planet hotter. They’ve also knocked longstanding precipitation patterns off balance by altering how much water cycles between earth and sky.
Yes, there have always been erratic weather patterns, but now the heaviest downpours and droughts are growing more extreme, USA TODAY revealed in its recent yearlong project, Downpour.
That trend started almost imperceptibly in the late 20th century, as the accumulation of earth-warming greenhouse gases reached critical levels in the atmosphere.
