ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2024
Observed humidity trends in dry regions contradict climate models.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Near-term, geospatial opportunity for biomass carbon storage to address the wildfire and climate crises.Science advances · 2026Article
- A Decade of Rainfall Manipulation Reveals Growing-Season Aridity as a Key Determinant of Grassland Productivity and Stability.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Efficiency-weighted cooling degree days reveal opposing temperature and humidity effects on energy demand.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Adaptation and Response in Drylands: A Dryland Research Agenda and Campaign Strategy.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Responses of China's dry grassland low-growth to temperature- and water-related extremes.iScience · 2026Article
- Heatwaves enable wildfire activity in the western United States.Science advances · 2026Article
- Regional drying over the Western U.S. driven by enhanced atmospheric subsidence amid global moistening from 1980 to 2020.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The emerging human fingerprint on global extreme fire weather.Science advances · 2026Article
- A theoretical index for understanding distinct land relative humidity trends in observations, reanalyses, and models.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Article
- Gazing into the flames: A guide to assessing the impacts of climate change on landscape fire.Science advances · 2025Review
- Extreme dry-hot in North America and Europe: the amplified role of warming-enhanced land-air coupling.National science review · 2025Article
- Elevation-dependent shifts in soil phosphorus forms and phosphorus-solubilizing microbial diversity suggest enhanced bioavailable phosphorus cycling with rising temperatures.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- A half-century of climate change in major agricultural regions: Trends, impacts, and surprises.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Confronting Earth System Model trends with observations.Science advances · 2025Review
- Impact of Heat on Respiratory Hospitalizations among Older Adults in 120 Large U.S. Urban Areas.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2025Article
- Solar dimming by increased moisture in a warmer world.National science review · 2025Article
- NASA Earth Exchange Downscaled Climate Projections 30 Arcseconds CMIP6.Scientific data · 2024Article
- Global emergence of regional heatwave hotspots outpaces climate model simulations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Anthropogenic warming has ushered in an era of temperature-dominated droughts in the western United States.Science advances · 2024Article
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Abstract
Arid and semi-arid regions of the world are particularly vulnerable to greenhouse gas-driven hydroclimate change. Climate models are our primary tool for projecting the future hydroclimate that society in these regions must adapt to, but here, we present a concerning discrepancy between observed and model-based historical hydroclimate trends. Over the arid/semi-arid regions of the world, the predominant signal in all model simulations is an increase in atmospheric water vapor, on average, over the last four decades, in association with the increased water vapor-holding capacity of a warmer atmosphere. In observations, this increase in atmospheric water vapor has not happened, suggesting that the availability of moisture to satisfy the increased atmospheric demand is lower in reality than in models in arid/semi-arid regions. This discrepancy is most clear in locations that are arid/semi-arid year round, but it is also apparent in more humid regions during the most arid months of the year. It indicates a major gap in our understanding and modeling capabilities which could have severe implications for hydroclimate projections, including fire hazard, moving forward.
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