摘要：Consequences of global climate change include changes in the frequency, intensity, duration and timing of droughts (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2012). While low levels of rain or snowfall contribute to drought conditions, so, too, do rising surface temperatures, which accelerate moisture evaporation into the atmosphere, drying land surfaces and lowering water levels in streams, lakes and oceans. The evaporated moisture eventually returns to earth through precipitation, but not necessarily in the locations from which it was evaporated (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2013). The result can be unexpected precipitation shortfalls in some locations, and unusually large amounts of precipitation in others.
