Weather & Science
Damaging Megadroughts Are Spreading Around the World
The area affected by multi-year dry stretches is expanding rapidly, putting livelihoods at risk.
A drought-affected corn field in Argentina in November 2023.
Photographer: Sebastian Lopez Brach/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Severe drought conditions have helped fuel the Los Angeles wildfires. But a new study, released Thursday in the journal Science comes with a warning: Climate change is making catastrophic, multiyear “megadroughts” much worse around the world.
Droughts are relative — a drought in normally rainy Seattle, for example, might register as an unusually wet period in a drier climate such as Phoenix, Arizona. But they can throw ecosystems out of whack, sometimes in dangerous ways.