photo: 

Environmental engineering Associate Professor Amilcare Porporato, a specialist in ecohydrology, wants to determine whether evapotranspiration has decreased and why. Using the Southeastern region of the U.S. as his test bed, Porporato is exploring the interplay of three major climate variables: a decrease in sunlight passing through the Earth’s atmosphere called solar dimming that may reduce plant transpiration; increased carbon dioxide which makes photosynthesis more effective (and thus with lower water needs); and significant changes in land use (changes in the fraction of natural, agricultural, and urban areas).

photo: 

Does being east of the mountains make the drought worse in North Carolina? Would we get more rain if they weren't in the way? I heard the La Nina effect in the South Pacific is messing up our weather in the SE United States. How can that be possible? It seems like being in drought and having dry soils and dead vegetation makes it even less likely to rain because there's less evaporation. Is that the case or not? If the Earth warms up by just 2 degrees or whatever, does that mean it's going to rain less or more? FIND OUT THE ANSWERS ....