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Exploring What a Drought Is Essay

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Exploring What a Drought Is

Drought is a long period of dry weather when there is no rainfall at all for weeks, months or even years. Rivers and streams stop flowing. Water in pools, ponds, or reservoirs dries out. Plants die. Drought becomes a natural disaster. Some droughts occur for a very long period of time, and cause great hardship to people, plants and animals. Every year, droughts take place in many parts of the world, mostly in deserts. People plan for drought be storing water in wells, water tanks, etc. and by growing crops that can stay alive in hot and dry weather.

How does drought effect the people?

When drought occurs, lakes, rivers, and wells dry up. In the hot and …show more content…

§ Permanent drought occurs in dry desert regions. There is hardly any rainfall, therefore deserts have drought all the time. However, desert people are good are surviving in these areas because they are used to the dry conditions and harsh environment.

§ Seasonal drought is a feature of places which are very dry for most of the year, with a short rainy season. Droughts here are predictable. For example, the countries around the Mediterranean Sea have rains in winter and drought in summer.

§ Contingent drought occurs when the rainy season is very short. There is little rain, and sometimes it does not rain at all.

§ Unpredictable drought is found in areas where sudden rainfalls or rainbursts can be quite heavy but can’t be predicted.

§ Invisible drought is the effect of scanty rainfall which harms crops and wildlife but does not completely destroy them.

Causes and Physical processes of drought

No one really knows why droughts happen. They could be affected by the shape of the land, by ocean currents, or by how moist the soil is. For example, The Kalahari and Sahara deserts in Africa are so far away from in land that no rains can reach them. Some people believe that drought is caused by a change in weather patterns and climate, including global warming and El Nino. El Nino is the shifting of warm water and a wet climate from the western to the eastern side of

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