I was quoted by Scientific American journalist Ula Chrobak about Albano et al (2022)'s drought study in the western United States and its implications for fire and water management, published on July 1, 2022. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Ula Chrobak, Science Journalist
Drought is typically thought of as a simple lack of rain and snow. But evaporative demand—a term describing the atmosphere's capacity to pull moisture from the ground—is also a major factor. And the atmosphere over much of the U.S. has grown a lot thirstier over the past 40 years, a new study in the Journal of Hydrometeorology found.
...
The study shows that resource managers “really have to think a lot about how we make sure that we're controlling the amount of water that we're all using,” says Caroline Juang, a Columbia University Earth scientist who was not involved in the study.
“Three inches of rain doesn't go as far as it used to,” McAfee says. “The atmosphere wants a bigger sip.”
Read the full article on Scientific American.