Global warming is disrupting the water cycle. Proof of this are the extreme floods and severe droughts of 2024.
According to 2024, an international collaboration led by Professor Albert van Dijk of the Australian National University (ANU), rising temperatures are significantly changing the way water moves around the planet, “wreaking havoc” on the water cycle.
As the planet is increasingly hotter, water evaporates more quickly, increasing severe events such as storms and droughts.
“Rising sea surface temperatures have intensified tropical cyclones and droughts in the Amazon Basin and southern Africa. Global warming has also contributed to heavier rainfall and slower-moving storms, as evidenced by deadly flash floods in Europe, Asia and Brazil,” van Dijk reported.
The report highlights that, in 2024, around four billion people in 111 countries experienced their hottest year so far, and that air temperatures have risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius since the start of the 21st century, about 2.2 degrees Celsius more than in the pre-industrial era.
“In 2024, Earth had its hottest year on record, at least fourth consecutive year. Water systems across the globe bore the brunt”, highlighted the expert. “It’s part of a trend of more intense flooding, prolonged droughts and record extremes.”
Additionally, researchers found that record precipitation with increasing regularity. Last year, monthly rainfall total records were broken 27% more often, while daily rainfall records were reached 52% more often.
On the other hand, “records of lack of precipitation were 38% more frequent”, said Albert Van Dijk, quoted in the statement.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, torrential rains caused flash floods that killed “more than a thousand people”, while “catastrophic floods in Brazil caused more than 80 deaths” and “in southern China, the Yangtze and Pearl rivers flooded cities and towns, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to crops,” he added.
But if some parts of the world suffered major floodsothers registered devastating droughts. Wildfires caused by hot, dry weather burned more than 52,000 square kilometers in September alone, releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases.
Furthermore, there is the fact that in southern Africa, due to a severe drought, maize production was less than half, leaving food for 30 million people. Dry pastures have forced the slaughter of livestock, with reduced energy production leading to widespread blackouts.
“We need to prepare and adapt to extreme weather events more serious”, warned the researcher, considering that it will be useful to invest in stronger defenses against floods, the development of food production and water supplies that are more resistant to drought and better early warning systems.
