The “Day Zero” water crisis that threatened the city of Cape Town in South Africa last year was due to an expansion of stable conditions in the subtropics that pushed rainfall farther south, according to a meteorological analysis. The researchers believe their study highlights the vulnerability of the Cape Town area – and other areas with dry, Mediterranean-type climates – to climate change.
“Although droughts are relatively frequent in these areas, the severity and frequency of occurrence in regions like Cape Town, California [in the US] and the Iberian Peninsula [in south-west Europe], among others, appears to be rising,” says Pedro Sousa of the University of Lisbon in Portugal. “This has been particularly notable in the last few years, which correspond exactly to the warmest years ever observed at the global scale.” […]
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