“Thirstwaves” Are Growing More Common Across the United States

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By Rebecca Owen, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: Like heat waves, these periods of high atmospheric demand for water can damage crops and ecosystems and increase pressure on water resources. New research shows they’re becoming more severe. As the climate warms, the atmosphere is getting thirstier. Scientists define this atmospheric thirst, or evaporative demand, as the amount of water that could potentially evaporate from Earth’s surface in response to weather. Standardized short-crop evapotranspiration (ETos) is a metric that estimates how much water would evaporate and transpire across a uniform, well-watered grass surface. It is used to measure the evaporative demand experienced by land covered by agricultural crops. Past studies have shown that ETos has increased over time in response to factors such as air temperature, solar radiation, humidity, and wind speed. But that research doesn’t cover patterns and trends over prolonged periods with exceptionally high atmospheric thirst. Kukal and Hobbins designate a new term for these extreme ETos events: thirstwaves. A thirstwave is a period of extremely high evaporative demand that like its cousin the heat wave, can wreak havoc on a growing season. To be called a thirstwave, the ETos must be above the 90th percentile for at least 3 days.... 

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