Is Drought In East Africa The New Normal?

Earlier this month, we wrote about a report from the US Agency for International Development’s Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) that warns the Horn of Africa may once again face food shortages because of a poorly performing rainy season.

In January, climate scientists Bradfield Lyon and David Dewitt from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society published a paper showing that since 1999, drought has become more frequent during the March-to-May rainy season in East Africa. What’s more, they connected this decrease in rainfall to sea-surface temperatures changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean, not the Indian Ocean, as other papers previously suggested.

Lyon explains the findings in this video interview: