In 2022, a third La Niña year brought much rain to Australia and Southeast Asia and dry conditions to the other side of the Pacific. These patterns were expected, but behind these variations there are troubling signs the entire global water cycle is changing. Our research team watches the global water cycle closely. We analyze observations from more than 40 satellites that continuously monitor the atmosphere and Earth's surface. We merge those with data from thousands of weather and water monitoring stations on the ground.

For the first time, we've drawn on those many terabytes of data to paint a full picture of the water cycle over a year for the entire globe, as well as for individual countries. The findings are contained in a report released today.

The key conclusion? Earth's water cycle is clearly changing. Globally, the air is getting hotter and drier, which means droughts and risky fire conditions are developing faster and more frequently.

The year in a nutshell...READ further from the source

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The year 2022 will be remembered as the third consecutive La Niña year. There were extraordinarily devastating floods in Pakistan, while multi-year droughts in eastern South America, the western USA and the Horn of Africa intensified further.

Globally, the water cycle was dominated by warmer than average ocean waters in the western Pacific Ocean and cool waters in the east, combined with a negative Indian Ocean Dipole, with relatively warm sea water in the eastern and northern Indian Ocean and cool water in the west.

As a result, a heatwave developed in south Asia early in the year, followed by a powerful monsoon with unusually high rainfall causing flooding and landslides in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Australia and several other countries.

Meanwhile, rainfall in the Americas, Africa and Central Asia was below average, intensifying drought conditions in the western USA, the centre of South America and the Horn of Africa.

In western Europe and much of China, heatwaves and drought marked the summer of 2022, with rivers and lakes shrinking before returning to more average conditions later in the year.

Global precipitation – averaged over the year and the global land area – was very close to average values for around 2000. However, the last two decades have seen increased air temperatures and declining air humidity, increasing heat stress and water requirements for people, crops and ecosystems alike.

At the end of 2022, dry conditions persisted in Central Asia, parts of North and South America and some islands in the western Pacific Ocean, suggesting a risk of intensifying or newly developing drought.

Find full details in the report ( PDF, 38p)