When It Rains: America's Changing Climate

How precipitation patterns are shifting across the United States

Claudine Handali, Sharon Tey, Charles Zhang, Jeremy Cheng

Regional Precipitation: Past and Future

Explore how precipitation patterns vary across different regions of the United States, comparing historical data with future projections under low and high emission scenarios.

Northeast
Δ precipitation per decade
What this means
Illustrative impacts under each pathway
Farms impacted
Low
High
Economic loss
Low
High
People at risk
Low
High
Historical
Low Emissions (SSP1-2.6)
High Emissions (SSP5-8.5)
Trend Lines
to

Emissions Choices: Who Bears the Impact?

Compare how many farms, people, and dollars are exposed under low vs. high emissions. The gap shows what we avoid by choosing the low-emission pathway.

Key Takeaways

🌧️

Rainfall across the United States is projected to increase, but how intense those changes become depends on the choices we make now. Under high-emission pathways, many regions see much larger jumps in future rainfall. Under lower emissions, those increases are noticeably smaller and more manageable.

📊
Historical data reveals increasing variability
🗺️
Regional impacts vary significantly
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Individual choices make a difference

The Choice is Ours

Our visualization makes this difference clear: human decisions today shape the precipitation patterns communities will face tomorrow. Lower emissions mean more manageable rainfall increases and better protection for our communities, farms, and infrastructure.