More Droughts/Changing Drought Patterns
In a warming climate we would expect to see more water entering the atmosphere through evaporation. But what does that suggest for drought patterns. Generally speaking, climate models suggest that wet areas are likely to get wetter, and that dry areas are likely to get drier, resulting in more droughts and more severe droughts over time.
One manifestation of rising drought risk will be crop insurance payouts as shown in the image below, taken from "2013 Cunningham  Protecting the Homeland the Rising Costs of Inaction on Climate Change" (available in the Climate Web).
As with all climate variables, it is misleading to forecast a single view of the future. As an example of that the graphic below estimates the percentage of cropland likely to be exposed to drought every year by 2050 for different regions of the world. Currently, the annual global % of cropland affected by drought is under 2%, but that will not be the case with climate change. And the worst case estimates are in some cases several times the "very likely" estimates. Extracted from "2015 King_Climate Change a Risk Assessment" (available in the Climate Web).
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