By studying more than a decade of measurements recorded by NASA satellites, scientists have documented a striking pattern in places around the world: many wet regions have grown wetter, while a number of dry regions have grown drier.

Researchers examined data from NASA satellites between 2002 and 2014 and found areas that have become wetter included the upper Missouri River basin, the northern Amazon and parts of Africa, as well as other parts of the tropics. Areas throughout the mid-latitudes became drier: in the Middle East and North Africa, parts of India and China, and across much of the southern and western United States, where drought-plagued California and the southern High Plains stood out for especially large losses of water.