eli5 When we have a dry season, where is that missing water?

Question

If an area that usually gets a lot of rain during the rainy season is getting less and less rain each year, where is that water going? Is it landing somewhere else or is it evaporating into the atmosphere permanently?

In: 3

Answer 1

Yes it rains somewhere else. This is why when people talk about the rain cycle being a closed loop it really doesn’t work that way at the regional level. Only in a global scale.