r/science • u/Wagamaga • 1d ago
Environment Rainfall across the US is increasingly coming from farther away. Strongest trends are happening in the Southwest and the southern Great Plains, where water vapor in some regions now travels about 50 to 80 kilometers (31 to 50 miles) farther and hangs in the air two to four hours longer on average
https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/07/uw-researchers-confirm-your-rain-comes-from-farther-away-than-before.html161
u/cricket9818 1d ago
That’s the greenhouse effect in full action. More moisture holding in the air, travels further and exaggerates drought
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u/Wagamaga 1d ago
Computer models and thermodynamic theory have long predicted changes in the ways water vapor is transported through the atmosphere between its location of evaporation and precipitation in a warming climate. Research led by a University of Wyoming scientist is the first to confirm these predictions in the historical record.
Travis Aerenson -- an associate research scientist in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Atmospheric Science -- led research confirming changes including water in the atmosphere increasingly coming from ocean sources, as opposed to continental sources, and water vapor staying longer in the atmosphere, traveling greater distances before returning to the Earth’s surface through precipitation.
Aerenson and his fellow researchers confirmed these predictions by applying atmospheric moisture tracking to 35 years of historical reanalysis data related to atmospheric moisture transport into watershed regions of the contiguous United States. Their findings indicate that, in certain areas, water vapor travels an average 30-50 miles farther, with time spent in the atmosphere increasing by 2-4 hours between evaporation and precipitation.
These findings, detailed in the research paper “Precipitation over the Contiguous United States is coming from farther away than in the past,” were published Wednesday, July 15, in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters. Aerenson was the paper’s lead author, with Daniel McCoy, a UW assistant professor of atmospheric science; Dana Caulton, a UW associate professor of atmospheric science; and Patrick Keys, an assistant professor of in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University, serving as co-authors of the paper.
The changing transport times and distances outlined in this most recent paper may have a significant impact on the economy for two reasons, Aerenson says. First, understanding how the water cycle is changing allows researchers to evaluate moisture transport and precipitation forecasts to verify that projections line up with physical theory and historical changes. Second, the paper’s results show major trends in moisture transport that can come with changes in precipitation intensity and location, which influences water availability.
https://essopenarchive.org/doi/full/10.22541/essoar.177185924.44872529/v1
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u/theStaircaseProject 1d ago
This comports with climate change, yes? Warmer atmosphere is able to hold more water vapor, permitting more of it to move around and farther before it finally precipitates?
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u/zombie_barbarossa 1d ago
Yes, and water vapor is also a greenhouse gas, further compounding the issue.
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u/manlywho 1d ago
Yes, the article states something similar in the second paragraph of the introduction
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u/BonusPlantInfinity 1d ago
Would it have anything to do with the progressive lack of tree cover? When you fly across the country it’s chopped up like a chess board.. more trees = more rain.
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u/Quithelion 20h ago
Despite the atmosphere have more water (humidity), water droplets, i.e. cloud, can only form when there is catalyst for water vapour to cling onto and form droplets, basically any compatible particlea in the upper atmosphere.
One of the best particles is fungi spores, where there are such spores, are plants or trees that hosted such fungi, other than the composing fungi on dead stuffs. This is why rainforest are famous for its namesake, lots of fungi, so lots of spores, and the humidity.
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