A new study from Northwestern University suggests that rainfall intensity is increasing across much of the United States. The research team analyzed 17 different climate regions and compared their rainfall during two distinct periods: 1951-1980 and 1991-2020.

“When people study how climate change has affected weather, they often look at extreme weather events like floods, heatwaves and droughts,” said study senior author Daniel Horton. “For this particular study, we wanted to look at the non-extreme events, which are, by definition, much more common. What we found is pretty simple: When it rains now, it rains more.”

The researchers found snow and rain intensity increased in the East, South, and Midwest. However, the Western states have not experienced an increase in precipitation.