Megadrought, megapluvial conditions will become the new normal under high emissions scenario: Report

Context

According to a new report, extreme drought or extreme rainfall (pluvial) conditions will become the norm for the rest of the 21st century for some parts of Earth.

About

Key Findings:

Western Europe, southwestern United States and northern Mexico, southern Africa and the western Amazon will see the earliest emergence of megadrought conditions.
Emergence of megapluvials “affects less of the global land surface”, but does take place in India and eastern Africa.
‘Hot droughts’ can increase in frequency. A long-term drying trend does not preclude the occurrence of an unusually wet interval and vice versa.
Soil moisture changes will be so large in some regions that conditions that will be termed a ‘megadrought’ or ‘megapluvial’ event.
In some regions, including Europe and western North America, this shift may have already taken place and could be in the offing elsewhere.
Emergence of drought and pluvial conditions will occur over 61 per cent of the global land surface (excluding Antarctica) by 2080.

Need to adapt and manage:

There is an increasingly urgent need to understand the full range of natural climatic variability, especially on decadal and longer timescales.
Since many regions have or will soon make the transition to a hydroclimatology defined by megadrought / pluvial conditions, water management needs to shift accordingly.
Over a fifth of India’s land area is facing drought-like conditions. Uneven distribution and failed monsoon are among the main causes.

Megadrought:

A megadrought is a period of extreme dryness that lasts for decades.
Within that period there may be occasional better, wet, years, but the respite is brief.
The dryness soon returns and drought maintains its long-term grip.
It is a period of 20 to 30 years where conditions are drier than average.
There may be some wet years sprinkled in, but drought impacts remain throughout the period. These are much longer in scale than droughts, which typically last months or years