Now that late spring/early summer is upon us, there’s increasingly more headlines about less rain in various places (recent floods notwithstanding). I’m assuming that’s because water is evaporating and not returning to those places, but where is it going?
Is it arriving, now, in these bursty flash floods? Is it staying longer in the atmosphere and moving to new locations? Is more of it just staying in the atmosphere period?
Flash floods happen because dry soil doesn’t absorb water very fast.
Here’s a video with a visual. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urQHsOmoKLg
Very little water ever leaves the earth via the atmosphere, so most of the water goes to the oceans or to other places.