As East Africa struggles through a drought, scientists say climate change may be making the situation worse as a warming planet may be altering the weather patterns that bring rain to the region. In Somalia, the rains failed late last year. And the rains before that were meager. Livestock have died. Crops have failed. Famine threatens Somalia for the second time this decade. While drought is not uncommon in this dry region, it has gotten worse, Chris Funk, a climate scientist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said. “What we’ve seen over, say, the last 35 years is that the rainfall during what’s called the long rains in East Africa has declined substantially,” Funk said. He added the explanation may lie in an atmospheric cycle that links East Africa and the Pacific Ocean. WATCH: Experts: Climate change may…