Climate Change Has Increased Global Evaporative Demand Except in South Asia

Authors

Saeed Karimzadeh, University of California, Davis
Arman Ahmadi, University of California, Berkeley
Dennis Baldocchi, University of California - Berkeley
Joshua B. Fisher, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-29-2025

Abstract

Climate change alters how strongly the atmosphere draws water from the land, yet a consistent global assessment of this evaporative demand has been lacking. Here, we analyze 45 years of climate data and global models to quantify trends in the key drivers—air temperature, humidity, radiation, wind speed, and cloud cover—that determine the atmosphere’s drying power. We find that evaporative demand has increased worldwide, indicating a stronger atmospheric thirst, except in South Asia, where it has declined. There, widespread irrigation has increased soil and air moisture, enhanced cloud formation, and reduced sunlight reaching the surface, counteracting the global signal. These contrasting trends reveal how human water use can locally reshape the climate’s influence on the water cycle.

Comments

This article was originally published in Communications Earth & Environment, volume 6, in 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02959-x

This article was the recipient of a Chapman University Supporting Open Access Research and Scholarship (SOARS) award.

Recommended Citation

Karimzadeh, S., Ahmadi, A., Baldocchi, D. et al. Climate change has increased global evaporative demand except in South Asia. Commun Earth Environ 6, 1009 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02959-x

Copyright

The authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.