How do you know when there is a drought?
The first evidence of drought usually is seen in records of rainfall. Within a short period of time, the amount of moisture in soils can begin to decrease. The effects of a drought on flow in streams and reservoirs may not be noticed for several weeks or months.
How droughts are caused?
The Short Answer: A drought is caused by drier than normal conditions that can eventually lead to water supply problems. Really hot temperatures can make a drought worse by evaporating moisture from the soil. But droughts don’t just happen in hot and dry places.
What is a drought for kids?
Drought is a continuous period of dry weather when an area gets less than its normal amount of rain. Droughts can last months or even years. Because crops and other plants need water to grow and land animals need water to live, droughts can be dangerous.
How does desertification cause drought?
Since the 1970s, the Sahel has experienced drought conditions on a regular basis. This is down to physical and human factors: Overgrazing and deforestation on marginal land can lead to desertification . With less vegetation there is less transpiration and evaporation from the soil, causing less rainfall.
What is the main cause of drought in the Sahel?
The results show that the four main causes of the Sahelian droughts are as follows: sea surface temperature changes, vegetation and land degradation, dust feedbacks and human-induced climate change.
Where does water go during a drought?
Where does the water go? Water is lost from the soil by evaporation from the soil surface and by transpiration from the leaves of plants. The combination of these two factors is called evapotranspiration. Water is also lost as it drains through the soil beyond the reach of the plant roots.
What is drought Short answer?
To a farmer, a drought is a period of moisture deficiency that affects the crops under cultivation—even two weeks without rainfall can stress many crops during certain periods of the growing cycle. To a meteorologist, a drought is a prolonged period when precipitation is less than normal.
What exactly is drought?
A drought is defined as “a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently prolonged for the lack of water to cause serious hydrologic imbalance in the affected area.” -Glossary of Meteorology (1959). Hydrological-occurs when surface and subsurface water supplies are below normal.