Warming accelerates global drought severity

Gebrechorkos, Solomon H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7498-0695; Sheffield, Justin; Vicente-Serrano, Sergio M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2892-518X; Funk, Chris; Miralles, Diego G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6186-5751; Peng, Jian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4071-0512; Dyer, Ellen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9136-8972; Talib, Joshua ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4183-1973; Beck, Hylke E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2553-9566; Singer, Michael B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6899-2224; Dadson, Simon J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6144-4639. 2025 Warming accelerates global drought severity. Nature. 10.1038/s41586-025-09047-2

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Abstract/Summary

Drought is one of the most common and complex natural hazards affecting the environment, economies and populations globally 1–4 . However, there are significant uncertainties in global drought trends 4–6 , and a limited understanding of the extent to which a key driver, atmospheric evaporative demand (AED), impacts the recent evolution of the magnitude, frequency, duration and areal extent of droughts. Here, by developing an ensemble of high-resolution global drought datasets for 1901–2022, we find an increasing trend in drought severity worldwide. Our findings suggest that AED has increased drought severity by an average of 40% globally. Not only are typically dry regions becoming drier but also wet areas are experiencing drying trends. During the past 5 years (2018–2022), the areas in drought have expanded by 74% on average compared with 1981–2017, with AED contributing to 58% of this increase. The year 2022 was record-breaking, with 30% of the global land area affected by moderate and extreme droughts, 42% of which was attributed to increased AED. Our findings indicate that AED has an increasingly important role in driving severe droughts and that this tendency will likely continue under future warming scenarios.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1038/s41586-025-09047-2
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Water and Climate Science (2025-) Directors, SCs
ISSN:	0028-0836
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link
Additional Keywords:	climate sciences, hydrology
NORA Subject Terms:	Hydrology Meteorology and Climatology Data and Information
Date made live:	12 Jun 2025 12:26 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/539574

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