01/26/2024

New Study Finds Incidence of 'Hot Droughts' Becoming More Frequent

The study links them to human-caused climate change

Take a period of limited rainfall. Add heat. And you have what scientists call a 'hot drought' – dry conditions made more intense by the evaporative power of hotter temperatures.

A new study, published in the journal Science Advances, Wednesday, finds that hot droughts have become more prevalent and severe across the western U.S. as a result of human-caused climate change.

"The frequency of compound warm and dry summers particularly in the last 20 years is unprecedented," said Karen King, lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Please select this link to read the complete article from NPR.