Climate Change is Disrupting Rainfall Patterns Across the Globe

Typhoon Gaemi wreaked havoc in the Philippines and Taiwan, causing massive floods and landslides that killed a total of 21 people in both places.

In the Philippines’ capital, Manila, the storm caused significant flooding and landslides, claiming at least 13 lives and displacing over 600,000 residents. As if the situation weren’t dire enough, the rough seas also caused an oil tanker to capsize in Manila Bay, creating the largest oil spill in the country’s history.

The day before Gaemi landed in the Philippines, it also hit Taiwan. Heavy downpours and widespread flooding to parts of the island gas claimed at least three lives.

In China, where Gaemi made landfall before tearing through Taiwan and the Philippines, more than 150,000 residents in Fujian, China’s south-eastern province, were relocated in anticipation of the storm.

China’s summer season, which runs from June to August, has experienced highly changeable weather this year. The east and south had heavy downpours and scorching heatwaves in the north. The country usually experiences heavy rainfall from the middle of July to mid-August (Comerford, 2024).

The IPCC report has warned that climate change will not only affect temperatures such as increased heat waves, longer warm seasons, and shorter cold seasons but will also bring changes to wetness and dryness, to winds, snow and ice, coastal areas and oceans. For example, climate change will intensify the water cycle, bringing in more intense rainfall, flooding, and droughts in many regions. It will also affect rainfall patterns (Climate Change Widespread, 2021).

The IPCC report projects that precipitation will likely increase in high latitudes but decrease over large parts of the subtropics. Monsoon precipitation will also change, varying by region (Climate Change Widespread, 2021).

According to the EPA, climate change can affect the intensity and frequency of precipitation. Warmer oceans increase the amount of water that evaporates into the air. When more moisture-laden air moves over land or converges into a storm system, it can produce more intense precipitation—for example, heavier rain and snow storms. For instance, nine of the top 10 years for extreme one-day precipitation events have occurred in the US since 1995 (Climate Change Indicators, 2024).

The prevalence of extreme single-day precipitation events remained relatively steady between 1910 and the 1980s but has risen substantially. From 1910 to 2023, the portion of the country experiencing extreme single-day precipitation events increased by about half a percentage point per decade (Climate Change Indicators, 2024).

Research, “Anthropogenic amplification of precipitation variability over the past century”, published on 25 July 2025 in Science.org, finds that human-caused warming has increased rainfall variability for more than 75% of the Earth’s land area over the last 100 years. Daily rainfall variability has increased by 1.2% every ten years, with the trend getting more pronounced in the latter half of the century after 1950. These changes are particularly prominent in Australia, Europe and eastern North America.

Increased rainfall variability also means that dry periods are drier than in the past, and rainy periods are wetter and projected to worsen with climate change. This means that areas more prone to drought and heatwaves and those prone to heavy rains and floods will see these extreme events get more intense and frequent.

Precipitation variability will challenge governments and communities, from managing water resources threatened by worsening droughts and heat to implementing climate adaptation strategies and building resilience against extreme weather events.