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What Causes Droughts?: What Is A Drought?

Droughts occur when an area receives significantly less rain or snow than normal over an extended period of time. They are caused by a lack of precipitation due to factors like high pressure weather systems that prevent cloud formation and rain, or wind patterns failing to deliver adequate water vapor to certain areas. Droughts can have severe environmental, economic, social, and health impacts including damage to agriculture and habitats, water shortages, famine, disease, and increased conflict over scarce resources.

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Rohan Atrawalkar
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83 views

What Causes Droughts?: What Is A Drought?

Droughts occur when an area receives significantly less rain or snow than normal over an extended period of time. They are caused by a lack of precipitation due to factors like high pressure weather systems that prevent cloud formation and rain, or wind patterns failing to deliver adequate water vapor to certain areas. Droughts can have severe environmental, economic, social, and health impacts including damage to agriculture and habitats, water shortages, famine, disease, and increased conflict over scarce resources.

Uploaded by

Rohan Atrawalkar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is a drought?

Droughts are when there is very little rain/snow for a very long time and there is as a result also very little food. A drought is classified when an area has less than 0.25 millimeters of snow, rain etc. over the course of 15 days. Droughts are not normally considered disasters. They are usually just normal parts of climate and weather and can occur anywhere. Droughts only become disasters when they last for a really long time and when they affect a lot of people. We already know that a drought occurs when not enough rain falls to the ground. However, water vapor condenses only if air rises into the colder regions of the atmosphere. If the air doesnt rise, then no rain will form. When there is high air pressure, air falls instead of rising. With the air pressing down in a high pressure zone, no currents of water vapor are carried upward. As a result, no condensation occurs, and little rain falls to earth. In addition, high-pressure areas push clouds and air currents downward and away, resulting in sunny, cloudless weather. Low-pressure systems see more cloudy, stormy weather

What causes droughts?


Because drought is defined as a deficit in water supply, it can be caused by a number of factors. The most important one though relates to the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere as this is what creates precipitation. More rain, sleet, hail, and snow can occur where there are moist, low pressure air systems. If there is an above average presence of dry, high pressure air systems instead, less moisture is available to produce precipitation (because these systems cannot hold as much water vapor). This results in a deficit of water for the areas over which they move. The cause of all droughts is not enough rainfall. During a drought, the land can become starved of nourishment. The earth is parched and even if some rain falls it dries up very quickly. There are many causes for this lack of rain. It can be

due to natural global patterns of air circulation, like in the Sahara desert where the winds are very strong, where it's naturally very dry and very sunny. In other parts of the world, droughts can be caused when high pressure weather systems last for several weeks. When there is a high pressure system no clouds will form because no water can evaporate. When a high pressure system is over an area for too long there is no precipitation (snow and rain). High pressure systems bring lots of sunshine, but can stop the passage of low pressure systems that bring rain. Or droughts occur because water vapor is not brought by air currents to the right areas at the right times. Water that evaporates from the oceans is brought inland by wind to regions where it is needed. However, sometimes those winds are not strong enough. In the eastern United States, moisture is carried up from the Gulf of Mexico by northward blowing winds. This moisture is then pushed by other winds until it reaches the Midwest. This water then falls to the ground, supporting the farms in that region. However, if the winds dont blow at the right time, in the right direction, or with enough force, the moisture falls in other areas and that Midwest region suffers from drought. A similar phenomenon occurs in Southeast Asia. Usually, summer winds known as monsoons carry water vapor north from the Indian Ocean inland, providing desperately needed rain. Sometimes, however, instead of blowing from north to south, they blow east to west. When that happens, the vapor doesnt leave the Indian Ocean and many people suffer from the resulting droughts. Unfortunately droughts can be created or at least helped along by people too. Poor practices in farming and too many fertilizers can make the soil lose its moisture and richness. Constant use of fossil fuels and also because of unscientific agricultural practices, Human activity can directly trigger exacerbating factors such as over farming, excessive irrigation Deforestation, and erosion adversely impact the ability of the land to capture and hold water. While these tend to be relatively isolated in their scope, activities resulting in global climate change are expected to trigger droughts with a substantial impact on agriculture [throughout the world, and especially in developing nations. Overall, global warming will result in increased world rainfall. Along with drought in some areas, flooding and erosion will increase in others. Paradoxically, some proposed solutions to global warming that focus on more active techniques, solar radiation management through the use of a space sunshade for one, may also carry with them increased chances of drought.

Consequences of droughts
Periods of drought can have significant environmental, agricultural, health, economic and social consequences. The effect varies according to vulnerability. For example, subsistence farmers are more likely to migrate during drought because they do not have alternative food sources. Areas with populations that depend on subsistence farming as a major food source are more vulnerable to drought-triggered famine. Drought is rarely if ever the sole cause of famine; socio-political factors such as extreme widespread poverty play a major role. Drought can also reduce water quality, because lower water flows reduce dilution of pollutants and increase contamination of remaining water sources. A few common consequences of drought include:

Diminished crop growth or yield productions and carrying capacity for livestock; Dust bowls, themselves a sign of erosion, which further erode the landscape; Dust storms, when drought hits an area suffering from desertification and erosion; Famine due to lack of water for irrigation; Habitat damage, affecting both terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. Malnutrition, dehydration and related diseases; Mass migration, resulting in internal displacement and international refugees; Reduced electricity production due to insufficient available coolant for power stations; and reduced water flow through hydroelectric dams. Shortages of water for industrial users; Snakes migration and increases in snakebites; Social unrest; War over natural resources, including water and food; Wildfires, such as Australian bushfires, are more common during times of drought;

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