An extended period of abnormally low precipitation that creates a serious water shortage relative to a region's normal climate and demand, affecting agriculture, water supply and ecosystems. Drought differs from simple aridity in being a temporary departure from expected conditions, and its severity is measured by indices tracking rainfall deficit, soil moisture and streamflow over time. Prolonged droughts, such as the 1930s Dust Bowl in the American Great Plains, have reshaped entire regional economies and populations.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Extended drought strips soil of moisture and vegetation cover, a major contributing cause of large dust storms, most famously during the 1930s Dust Bowl.
El Nino-Southern Oscillation phases are a well-documented driver of drought in specific teleconnected regions, such as El Nino-linked drought in Southeast Asia and Australia and La Nina-linked drought in the southwestern United States.
Heat waves and drought commonly reinforce one another: sustained high temperatures increase evaporation and deplete soil moisture, intensifying and prolonging drought conditions already underway.
Desert locust plagues are documented to follow the end of extended drought, when the heavy rains that break a drought create the moist soil conditions locusts need for mass breeding and swarm formation.
A desert superbloom typically follows the end of an extended drought, when unusually heavy rains after dry years trigger mass germination of a dormant wildflower seed bank.
Prolonged drought dries vegetation and soil moisture, a primary and well-documented driver of increased wildfire risk, frequency and severity.
Demonstrated By
The climate of the Mediterranean Basin is defined by long, reliably dry summers, a seasonal drought pattern distinct from the wet winters of the region.
The Taklamakan sits in the deep rain shadow of surrounding mountain ranges, making it one of the driest and most drought defined deserts on Earth.
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