Large numbers of people live in regions where the annual mean precipitation is now 'unfamiliar' compared to the mean and variability between 1891 and 2016 . "Unfamiliar" is defined as the long-term change being greater than one standard deviation in the annual data . In 2020, approximately 498 million people lived in unfamiliarly wet areas, where the long-term average precipitation is as high as previously seen in only about one in 6 years  . These areas are primarily in mid and high latitudes . On the other hand, approximately 163 million people lived in unfamiliarly dry areas, mostly in low latitudes . Due to high variability over time, the signal of long-term change in annual mean precipitation is not distinguishable from the noise of variability in many areas , implying that the local annual precipitation cannot yet be defined 'unfamiliar' by the above definition.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report