As more rain is concentrated in heavier storms, many parts of California and the western U.S. are drying, new research shows.

A Dartmouth study shows that annual rainfall in much of the world has consolidated over the past four decades into heavier storms with longer dry periods in between.

At least two people died Thursday after becoming trapped in flooded basements amid an afternoon of record-breaking rainfall across the five boroughs, city officials said. Police said a 39-year-old man ...