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What Is Drought

Drought is a natural hazard that occurs when an area receives less precipitation than normal over an extended period of time. A drought can cause land to become dry, hot, and dusty, with cracked soil and diminished water sources. Drought has many causes including changes in wind patterns that reduce moisture delivery or decreased rainfall upstream that lowers water levels in rivers. Unlike other natural hazards, drought often develops slowly and is difficult to detect as it approaches.

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Camille Falcone
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62 views

What Is Drought

Drought is a natural hazard that occurs when an area receives less precipitation than normal over an extended period of time. A drought can cause land to become dry, hot, and dusty, with cracked soil and diminished water sources. Drought has many causes including changes in wind patterns that reduce moisture delivery or decreased rainfall upstream that lowers water levels in rivers. Unlike other natural hazards, drought often develops slowly and is difficult to detect as it approaches.

Uploaded by

Camille Falcone
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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 Drought?

What do you think of when you hear the word drought? Do you think “dry”, “hot”, “dusty”, “cracked earth”, or
even “no water”? If so, you’re on the right track! When some places are in a drought, they may be dry, hot and dusty;
cracks may appear in the soil, and rivers, lakes, streams, and other sources of water may go dry. Other places in drought
get some rain. Not as much as they usually receive during that season. A drought means that a place has less
precipitation (rain or snow) than normal over a few months or even longer.

Drought has many causes. It can be caused by not receiving rain or snow over a period of time. Changes in the
wind patterns that move clouds and moisture through the atmosphere can cause a place to not receive its normal
amount of rain or snow over a long period of time. If you live in a place where most of the water you use comes from a
river, a drought in your area can be caused by places upstream from you not receiving enough moisture. There would be
less water in the river for you and other people who live along the river to use.

We usually can't see drought coming. We can see water rising in a river, watch the wind pick up as a hurricane
approaches, or see thunderclouds approaching. We also can turn on the television, radio, or internet to see storms on
radar and find out what we should do to protect ourselves from storms. We don’t have watches or warnings for drought
like we do for other natural hazards such as tornadoes, floods, or hurricanes.

Text and image from https://drought.unl.edu/Education/DroughtforKids/WhatisDrought.aspx

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