Rising temperatures may increase flood risk through river ‘whiplash’, study finds

Sudden shifts from wet to dry weather, or vice versa, may foil typical drought- and flood-prevention measures

Rising temperatures may trigger a dangerous increase in “hydroclimatic whiplash” in rivers that would make traditional approaches to flood and drought planning insufficient, a study has found.

As temperatures rise owing to the worsening climate crisis, rivers will experience increasingly rapid transitions between heavy downpours and long dry spells – called hydroclimatic whiplash events – because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, intensifying rainfall extremes.