Droughts, Floods, and Water Vapor - Oh My!
Provided by: The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF)|Published on: May 20, 2021|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Articles/Websites
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), Nick Bradford
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This article explains how warmer air in the atmosphere can hold more water vapor, causing droughts in some areas and more extreme precipitation in other areas.
- The resource includes several maps showing the future of precipitation changes in the United States as well as two NASA videos on the future of worsening droughts in the American West and projected changes in precipitation and temperature for the next century.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This article explains how rising greenhouse gas emissions will impact the water cycle by causing droughts and floods and creating more warming in the atmosphere.
- The graphics and videos help to explain complicated topics.
Prerequisites
- The link to the EPA's report is broken.
- Students should have a basic understanding of climate change and the water cycle.
- Teachers may want to go over essential vocabulary words like amplify, intensify, greenhouse gases, emissions, accelerated, mitigation, reference, and gaseous.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Students could research the types of mitigation efforts that would help to keep global warming in the 3°C climate scenario range.
- Social studies classes could discuss how the United States and other countries should prepare for changes in precipitation. Students could think of ways that certain regions might update their infrastructure, make changes to the agricultural industry, or relocate communities to adapt to frequent droughts or floods.
- Other resources on this topic include this interactive world map that shows how precipitation patterns could change, this text on water extremes, and this video on how climate change is causing hurricanes to become more extreme.
Datasets are cited, but using CS3C to model climate trends and simulate future projections up to 2100 is outdated. Rather CMIP5 or CMIP6 models which are capable of generating a set of standard simulations to enable quality predictions of future scenarios should have been used. The resource is however recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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