As global temperatures rise, it is expected that droughts will become more frequent and intense. Many previous studies have sought to predict and explain worldwide drought trends, but have lacked high-quality, reliable data, and have neglected the role played by atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) – the atmosphere’s 'thirst' for moisture. In a recent Nature article, ‘Warming accelerates global drought severity’, a team of researchers, including Christ Church's Tutor in Geography, Professor Simon Dadson, demonstrate that by making the atmosphere 'thirstier', climate change is resulting in more frequent, more severe and more widespread droughts.

The study draws on more than 120 years of high-resolution drought datasets from 1901 to 2022 to deliver the most detailed picture of drought trends to date. Where research previously focused on precipitation levels, Professor Dadson and his co-authors have sought to highlight the complex physical factors which determine how much water – delivered to the earth’s surface through rainfall – is removed through evaporation. They also explored how temperature, wind, solar radiation and humidity jointly influence AED, and how increased AED has intensified droughts in recent decades. Read more about the research here.