Eli5 How does water migrate away from its evap point? Ie: why does the water that is evaporated not, eventually, return to the same spot? For example, all the water that’s evap from say Kansas. Why would Kansas ever experience a drought if the water, in theory, shouldn’t go too far? Or does it?

Question

Eli5 How does water migrate away from its evap point? Ie: why does the water that is evaporated not, eventually, return to the same spot? For example, all the water that’s evap from say Kansas. Why would Kansas ever experience a drought if the water, in theory, shouldn’t go too far? Or does it?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

It can go quite far. You can see an animation of water moving around in the atmosphere across the whole globe [here](http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mtpw2/product.php?color_type=tpw_nrl_colors&prod=global2&timespan=24hrs&anim=html5) (each frame is one hour, the full animation is one day).

As of this writing, for example, you can see water from the Caribbean flowing up into the Great Plains of the US – which is why that region is quite hot and humid in summer, and what powers their tornado activity in spring and fall. In the southeast Pacific, you can see a plume of tropical moisture being drawn past the tip of South America, and in the north Atlantic you can see moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Stream reaching Greenland.