Warming accelerates global drought severity

Abstract Drought is one of the most common and complex natural hazards affecting the environment, economies and populations globally 1–4 . However, there are significant uncertainties in global drought trends 4–6 , and a limited understanding of the extent to which a key driver, atmospheric evaporative demand (AED), impacts the recent evolution of the magnitude, frequency, duration and areal extent of droughts. Here, by developing an ensemble of high-resolution global drought datasets for 1901–2022, we find an increasing trend in drought severity worldwide. Our findings suggest that AED has increased drought severity by an average of 40% globally. Not only are typically dry regions becoming drier but also wet…