Have you ever wondered why increased droughts and wildfires, and more severe storms and flooding, are both symptoms of the climate crisis? Here are some basics.

“As the air and oceans warm under a thicker blanket of greenhouse gases, more water vapor evaporates into the air, providing more moisture to fuel thunderstorms, hurricanes, nor’easters and monsoons,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. “Heavier downpours and more frequent flooding are clear fingerprints of the climate crisis,” she said. The droughts and floods are connected in part because changing weather patterns divert moisture in the air from one region, dumping it elsewhere, while the region losing the moisture flow is now suffering from drought. Meanwhile, evaporation from the drought-stricken region is increasing due to the warming atmosphere’s increased ability to hold the evaporating moisture without releasing it back in precipitation there. The increased dryness of that land fuels more, bigger, and more prolonged wildfires there. 

CIB recommends the full article in Bloomberg News for current examples of this climate phenomenon at work creating “global havoc.”