rainfall
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What Really Happened on Easter Island? Ancient Sediments Rewrite the “Ecocide” Story
A new study challenges long-held narratives of societal “collapse,” instead showing that Rapanui communities adapted to profound climate stress with resilience and innovation.
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Climate Change May Have Huge Impacts on Staple Crops Within 10 Years, Says NASA
The study projects that wheat will do better in temperate regions, but corn production could plummet in warmer ones. Some crops may decline in nutritional value.
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Climate & Water in a Changing Africa: Uncertainty, Adaptation & the Social Construction of Fragile Environments
A special issue for the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences examines water (in)security in Africa in an age of global climate change.
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Volcanoes May Have Large, Lasting Impacts on Global Precipitation
A new study employs natural climate archives such as tree rings to better understand volcanoes’ impacts on global rainfall patterns.
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Stronger Rains in Warmer Climate Could Lessen Heat Damage to Crops, Says Study
Intensified rainstorms predicted for many areas in the United States as climate warms could more efficiently water some major crops, which would at least partially offset projected yield declines caused by rising heat itself.
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More Intense Non-Tropical Storms Causing Increased Rainfall in U.S. Southeast
In the Southeastern United States, the increasing amount of rain during hurricane season is coming not from hurricanes but from non-tropical storms created by weather fronts, new research finds.
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Warming Climate Could Abruptly Increase Rain in Africa’s Sahel
Climate change could turn one of Africa’s driest regions wet, according to a new study. Scientists have found evidence in computer simulations for a possible abrupt change in the Sahel, a region long characterized by aridity and political instability. In the study, just published in the journal Earth System Dynamics, the authors detected a self-amplifying…
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In a Warmer World, Expect the Wet to Get Wetter, and the Dry, Drier
As the world warms due to human-induced climate change, many scientists have been projecting that global rainfall patterns will shift. In the latest such study, two leading researchers map out how seasonal shifts may affect water resources across the planet.
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Green Sahara’s Ancient Rainfall Regime Revealed
Rainfall patterns in the Sahara during the six-thousand-year “Green Sahara” period have been revealed by analyzing marine sediments, according to new research.

During COP30—the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference taking place November 10–21 in Belém, Brazil—experts from Columbia Climate School and Columbia University will be contributing to key events, sharing insights, and helping shape the dialogue toward ambitious, science-based solutions. Learn More
