Name: Why rainfall intensity is on the rise
Uploaded: 2025-10-30T01:01:14.307Z
Duration: 2 min 28 s
Description: AccuWeather investigates why rainfall intensity has been increasing in recent years and what that means for things like farming and infrastructure.

AccuWeather investigates why rainfall intensity has been increasing in recent years and what that means for things like farming and infrastructure.

Florida

An analysis by AccuWeather of more than seven decades of rainfall data across the contiguous United States indicates that although annual rainfall totals have slightly decreased, the intensity of rainfall events has increased. This means that when rain does fall, it tends to arrive in heavier, more concentrated bursts, particularly over the past 20 to 30 years.

Experts attribute this trend to climate change, as warmer air can hold more moisture, resulting in more intense downpours. These heavier rains are straining aging infrastructure and increasing flood risks, especially in rapidly developing and coastal areas. The impacts extend to agriculture, where extreme rainfall can cause erosion and delay planting, and to insurance, with rising costs as more people move into flood-prone regions.

Why rainfall intensity is on the rise

AccuWeather's analysis of more than 70 years of rainfall data shows that across the contiguous United States or the lower 48, annual rainfall totals have decreased slightly, but the rain that does fall is arriving harder, faster, and in more dangerous bursts. We found that the intensity of rainfall is steadily increasing, especially when you're talking two, three, four inch amount of rainfall. That's where we're seeing the biggest increase, especially over the past 20, 30 years or so. Experts say the reason is simple, warmer air holds more moisture. With climate change, the atmosphere is warming. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, more water vapor. So for every degree Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit increase in temperature, we're seeing a 7% increase in the amount of water vapor held in the atmosphere. Those intense downpours overwhelm roads, storm drains, and pipes designed for a much different era. We have a lot of old plumbing, obviously, and that's costly to replace. And boy, I'll tell you what, we have a lot more pavement out there too. Populations are growing in the southern United States, coastal areas as well. So that heavy rain that comes down does not get absorbed by the soil. Instead, it just runs off and collects in the lower areas where it leads to flooding. The impacts stretch from cities to farmland. Farmers hate extremes. They like average conditions, normal conditions. But when you're dealing with extremes, you can get rapid erosion of your corn field, for instance. Muddy fields that can last for weeks and they can't get planting in. From farming challenges to infrastructure upgrades, the costs of heavier rain are already adding up, and experts warn insurance is no exception. Insurance costs are rising as we speak, and they likely can continue to rise because more people are moving into areas that are prone to extreme rainfall. And the pace of broken records shows no signs of slowing. We're constantly seeing records broken much more than they used to be. It's almost a yearly thing when we see more records being broken in terms of rainfall and flooding. So climate has clearly changed over the past 10, 20 years or so, and it's going to continue to change and become much more extreme. AccuWeather's research makes the message clear. Totals may not be rising, but the storms are, and knowing your flood risk has never been more important. For AccuWeather, I'm meteorologist Tony Laubach.

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