As rising temperatures disrupt the global water cycle, the weather in some of the most crowded cities on earth is fluctuating between droughts and floods and back again, according to a study released on Wednesday by the nonprofit organization WaterAid.
Researchers analyzed 42 years of weather data from more than 100 of the most populated cities in the world and discovered that although Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa are getting progressively drier, South and Southeast Asia are experiencing the largest wetting patterns.
“There will be winners and losers associated with climate change,” stated Michael Singer, one of the study’s authors and a member of Cardiff University’s Water Research Institute. “It’s already happening.”
