Daniel Swain in Spectrum News 1—As Earth warms, more ‘flash droughts’ suck soil, plants dry

What happens is the air gets so hot and so dry that it sucks water right out of plants and soil.

“It’s the increasing thirstiness of the atmosphere,” said UCLA and National Center for Atmospheric Research climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part of the study. Swain called the issue “very relevant in a warming climate.”