A drought is an extended period of time when an area notes a deficiency in its water supply. Most of the time, droughts occur when an area receives consistently below average rainfall. Droughts can range from a few months, to many years, and even the shortest drought can cause major damage. There are many, many regions where droughts occur, all over the world (see map below). One very important area where droughts are constantly happening is India. This is very concerning because so many people live there, and the Ganges is being affected. The Ganges provides drinking water and agricultural irrigation for more than 500 million people. If we are losing all of this water, then the environment is greatly impacted. (1) Some of the effects that droughts have on our regions are increased desertification, damage to plant/animal species, and erosion of soil. The impacts on the economy are damage to crops, increase in food prices, loss of hydroelectric power, and also rangefires and wildland fires. The effects of droughts on people can sometimes be deadly. Droughts can cause disease, lack of drinking water, mental and physical stress, and population migrations. (3)
This map shows the areas that commonly have droughts all across the world.
http://mapscroll.blogspot.com/2009/05/natural-disasters.html
Ocean temperatures, changes in climate, changes in the jet stream, and changes in the local landscape all make up a recipe for a drought, but the most important and leading factor is lack of precipitation. Droughts usually happen when there is not a sufficient amount of precipitation in an area to support the region's needs. (2)
This is a map of the precipitation in the united states. The areas with more reds and oranges have less precipitation than the areas with more greens.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/precip.html
DROUGHT WARNINGS
There are not specific drought warnings that are released to the public, because droughts happen and develop over time. On the other hand, there are ways that we can prevent man-made droughts. Some of the things that we can monitor are crop rotation, land use, outdoor water use, recycled water, and transvasement. The only technology that we can use to predict droughts is measuring rainfall and precipitation. There is not much else to use because, again, droughts form over time and we can't really predict something like this.
http://weatherobservatory.blogspot.com/2010/11/friday-november-12-2010-rain-chances.html
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drought#RegionsWikipedia
October 19, 2011
About.com Weather- Rachelle Oblack
(Doesnt say when last updated)
Oracle Education Foundation
(Doesn't say when last updated)
This picture and the one below show one horrible effect that droughts have on the environment. There is sometimes not enough water for creatures to survive.
