As temperatures rise, heavy rainfall during storms becomes even heavier, whereas lighter bursts grow less intense. This could bring storms that are more unpredictable and destructive as the climate warms.

Conrad Wasko and Ashish Sharma at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, analysed high-resolution rainfall data from 79 locations across Australia from 1955 to 2005. They found that, at all latitudes, Australian rainfall patterns became less uniform as temperatures rose, and the authors predicted a 5–20% increase in the peak water flow rate during floods at temperatures 5 °C warmer than today.

A warmer climate could lead to short-term floods that are more intense, the authors suggest.

Nature Geosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2456 (2015)