The release this week of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) special report on global warming of 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels marks a critical point in climate negotiations. Billed in the media as "life changing", the report illustrates how crossing the ever-nearer threshold of 1.5℃ warming will affect the planet, and how difficult it will be to avoid overshooting this target. The special report takes a worldwide look at the growing impacts of climate change. But for countries like Botswana and Namibia, which are highly vulnerable to climate stresses, it's important to understand how surpassing the 1.5℃ global limit will play out at the local level. For these hot, dry and water-stressed countries, local warming and drying will be greater than the global average. So, even a 1.5°C increase in global temperature will have severe local impacts, ushering in intensified and longer droughts and many more heatwaves. Ironically, when rain does fall, it is expected to be much heavier, increasing the risk of heavy flooding within an overall drying climate.