New Study: Ocean Warming Is Supposed To Increase Water Vapor – But It’s Been Declining Since 2008

“Our findings are unexpected: despite rising sea surface temperatures, global Eo [ocean evaporation/water vapor] has decreased in the most recent decade.” – Ma et al., 2025

A 2024 study published in PNAS again confirmed climate models fail to simulate what happens in the real world with regard to fundamental climate change variables like water vapor, Earth’s most significant greenhouse gas (due to its alleged warmth-enhancing “feedback” capacity).

Per state-of-the-art climate models, specific humidity (SH) should increase as a consequence of CO2-induced global warming. But 40 years of observations (1980-) show no increasing SH trend over arid/semi-arid regions.

Per state-of-the-art climate models, relative humidity (RH) should remain relatively constant, if not decline slightly as a consequence of CO2-induced global warming. But 40 years of observations (1980-) show not a slight declining trend, but a declining trend that is “about an order of magnitude more than the models on average.” In other words, the climate models are wrong by a factor of 10.

The authors did not understate the profundity of these climate modeling failures.

“This represents a major gap in our understanding and in climate model fidelity that must be understood and fixed as soon as possible in order to provide reliable hydroclimate projections for arid/semi-arid regions in the coming decades.”

Image Source: Simpson et al., 2024

Now, a new study has once again confirmed there has been an “unexpected” decline in ocean evaporation (which accounts for 85% of the derivation of global atmospheric water vapor) since 2008, the “turning point” (TP) year.

These robust results affirming a declining ocean evaporation (Eo) or water vapor trend across two-thirds of the globe – mostly in the Southern Hemisphere – can be found in all four satellite data sets used for the study.

Image Source: Ma et al., 2025

It should be noted that in 2020 Dr. Koutsoyiannis published a paper indicating the lack of a model-expected increasing trend in global specific humidity has been observed not just since 2008, or 1980, but since the late 1940s.

Observations do not seem to be sufficiently cooperating with the “water vapor feedback” narrative.

Image Source: Koutsoyiannis, 2020

8 responses to “New Study: Ocean Warming Is Supposed To Increase Water Vapor – But It’s Been Declining Since 2008”

  1. oeman50

    I have wondered if the fact that “warmer air can hold more moisture” actually results in some of effect attributed to it. So warmer can hold more moisture but does it always run at saturation, 100% RH? I think not.

    1. John Brown

      warm air appear more dry!

  2. Senex

    Not to worry.. a shift to a full-on hydrogen economy will soon restore the missing water vapour

  3. Stephen Richards

    A failure in the laws of physics dating back 200 years. OMG we are destroyed !!

  4. John F. Hultquist

    Another fail for the ClimateCult.

  5. New Study: Ocean Warming Is Supposed to Increase Water Vapor – But It’s Been Declining Since 2008 – Climate- Science.press

    […] From NoTrickZone […]

  6. oebele bruinsma

    Winds enhance evaporation. So: less winds less evaporation.

  7. Lutz Barz

    Western land zones eg SW African and Western Australia are desert areas even as they receive constant ocean driven winds but since these regions are flat, with no lift due to mountains whatever moisture the winds carry is lost. That will not change. As for humidity decreasing with heat is one reason why dry areas are better for humans as I found out traveling west from India before the monsoon and though stinking hot didn’t kill me like summers in eastern Australia’s higher humidity. Point is weather operates in global cells. So temperature is not the determinant but one of several. As said the flat terrain is responsible for dryness not the heat itself.

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