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Scientists: Droughts, Flooding Across US To Become More Extreme

GREENBELT, Md. (WJZ)—NASA's newest tool in space is tracking the world's rainfall,with the best accuracy, and it's already had plenty of extreme weather to study this summer.

Alex DeMetrick reports, it's likely to have a lot more in the future.

This summer, six feet of rain fell on Texas in a matter of days.

In California and much of the west, a record drought has wildfires burning hotter and earlier in the year than normal.

"One of the things we know about a warmer planet is that it's going to put more water into the atmosphere, and that tends to bring bigger winners and bigger losers when it comes to rainfall events," said Dr. Doug Morton, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

And rain is what NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement, or GPM satellite, is tracking worldwide and in greater detail than ever before.

At the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, tracking data shows rainfall over time.

In this case, this summer, that six feet of rain is purple.

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"The good news for Texas, despite the flooding, is their drought is over.  Unfortunately for California there's no quick fix," said Morton.

But it could be helped by El Nino, the warmer than normal water that periodically forms off South America's west coast. That usually brings heavy rain to the Western U.S., and heavy snow to the east.

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Morton says the way things roll for our region will depend how much the jet stream gets shifted.

The extremes in weather seen this year are likely to be very long term as the world heats up.

"As we look out into the future, taking NASA satellite data and putting it into computer models, it allows us to have a better sense that these same conditions, drought situations you see across the southwest, is more likely to be longer and more frequent in the coming decades," said Morton.

Projections are this century the United States could experience the worst drought in one thousand years.

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