Built-Up Cities Get More Rain Than Rural Outskirts, Study Finds

Cities often get more rain and experience extreme rainfall more often compared to surrounding areas, a new study finds, a phenomenon that compounds other risk factors for urban flooding.

Of the more than 1,000 cities around the world that the researchers considered, 63% received more annual precipitation on average than outlying rural areas, according to an analysis of two decades of satellite data published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In some cases, the difference was more than half a foot per year. Many cities also saw more frequent and more dramatic extreme rainfall.