NASA Detects Trends in Rainfall Traits from Drizzles to Downpours

Breaking news in recent years has been swamped with stories of extreme weather — flash floods in East Asia, prolonged drought in Africa, destructive hurricanes like Hurricane Katrina, heavy monsoon rainfall in South Asia, and an historic heat wave in Europe. The effects of these weather crises have been devastating, and their frequency seemingly on the rise. With an understanding that the societal effect of increased rainfall is huge, researchers have had a key question at the center of a debate among them: Are rain-producing weather events increasing worldwide, and if so, what is the relationship, if any, between their growth and climate change?

…A recent NASA study published in the International Journal of Climatology in January resolves this problem by using a new technique to confirm that extremely heavy rainfall in the tropics is indeed on the rise as suspected.

NASA