Rising temperatures may increase flood risk through river ‘whiplash’, study finds
Sudden shifts from wet to dry weather, or vice versa, may foil typical drought and flooding prevention measuresRising temperatures may trigger a dangerous increase in “hydroclimatic whiplash” in rivers that would make traditional approaches to flood and drought planning insufficient,…
By · June 17, 2026 · 1 min read
This article was originally published by
The Guardian World
and is republished here under license.
Sudden shifts from wet to dry weather, or vice versa, may foil typical drought and flooding prevention measures
Rising temperatures may trigger a dangerous increase in “hydroclimatic whiplash” in rivers that would make traditional approaches to flood and drought planning insufficient, a study has found.
As temperatures rise owing to the worsening climate crisis, rivers will experience increasingly rapid transitions between heavy downpours and long dry spells – called hydroclimatic whiplash events – because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, intensifying rainfall extremes.
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