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water

Weather

Weatherwatch: rainclouds are travelling farther in warmer world

Climate crisis affects not only the amount of rain that falls but where, with implications for land use and water security Have you ever wondered how far a raindrop has travelled before it lands on you? It may have journeyed thousands of kilometres from the ocean, sea or lake it evaporated from – and now research shows raindrops are travelling even farther than they used to. Warmer air can hold more water vapour, and that is changing not only how much rain we receive but also where it falls. Travis Aerenson, of the University of Wyoming, and his colleagues modelled atmospheric moisture movemen

Science

Scientists turn seawater into fresh water without harmful brine

Scientists have developed a solar-powered desalination system that turns seawater into fresh water while removing nearly all of the leftover salt as a solid instead of producing harmful brine. The self-cleaning technology could also recover valuable minerals such as lithium, potentially turning desalination waste into a useful resource.

Weather

Weatherwatch: soil moisture deficit – how dry are the UK’s thirsty soils?

SMD is the moisture the soil must make up until it is at capacity, with very dry conditions over most of England and Wales When the ground is thoroughly wet, after excess rainwater has run off it is said to be at field capacity. Meteorologists describe drought in terms of soil moisture deficit (SMD) from field capacity. The SMD is a measure of how thirsty the soil is, expressed as how many millimetres of rain it would take to top it up to field capacity. In southern England, the SMD tends to hover around zero in winter when fields are wet. In summer it may be about 100mm, going up to 150mm or

Topic: water | RocksNews