Incidence of Extreme Precipitation Events. Historical (1900-1990), mid-century and end of the century projections for maximum precipitation during a five day period. Adapted from Northeast Climate Impact Assessment (NECIA) 2006. 

Winter Precipitation as Percentage of Change. The black line depicts average historical precipitation patterns from 1900-1990.  The red line represents the predicted change in precipitation under the higher IPCC emissions scenario. The blue line represents precipitation changes under the lower emissions scenario. The largest increase in precipitation is expected after 2050, particularly in the high emission scenario. Adapted from Northeast Climate Impact Assessment (NECIA) 2006.

Historical and projected drought periods in the Northeast.  A color key indicating the number of short term (1-3 months), medium term (3-6 months) and  long term periods of drought during historic (1961-1990) and end of century (2070-2099) time periods.  Drought is defined as occurring when monthly soil moisture falls more than 10 percent below the climatological mean. Adapted from Hayhoe et al. 2006b.