Multi-decadal changes in rainfall patterns and water availability in Ohio
Over the past decades, numerous studies have improved our understanding of the relationship between climate change and the global hydrological cycle. These studies have detected remote associations between rising air temperatures and global precipitation, since a warmer climate spurs the evaporation of water, allowing the atmosphere to hold more moisture. As a result, wet places tend to get wetter and dry places get drier, increasing the risks of extreme weather events (e.g., floods and droughts). The U.S. Midwest has experienced noticeable changes in its climate. Heat waves are becoming more frequent, cold periods becoming rarer. Snow and ice are arriving later in the fall and melting earlier in the spring. Heavy downpours now occur twice as frequently as they did a century ago. The recent IPCC report have suggested that these warming trends are likely to continue as average summer temperatures are projected to increase over the next few decades. These trends, however, are mostly framed within global or continental scales, and few attempts have been made to scale down these teleconnections and study its impacts at the regional and local scales. This project will contribute to this downscaling effort. Our results will help better understand the temporal and spatial variations on precipitation in Ohio, and provide support to managers about emergency preparedness to floods and droughts, as well as to farmers about water availability for irrigation and planning for water use.
