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Drought is a normal, recurrent feature of climate, although many
 * Drought is related to a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time.

erroneously consider it a rare and random event. It occurs in   virtually all areas, whatever their normal climate may be, and the characteristics of a drought may be very different from one region to another. Technically, drought is a “temporary” condition, even though it may last for long periods of time.

When there is a drought, there is less water available for growing crops, farming animals, industry and our cities. Droughts also impact the environment by causing erosion, harm animals by destroying their homes and cause people to pay more for food and affect our water supplies

What is a drought? Have you ever seen a stream or river in the spring, flowing full of water and life and then come back to see it all dried up in the heat of the summer? Have you ever seen a cornfield in July or August that looks shriveled and dry? Sometimes when we have a long period without much rain, these things can happen. That is a drought. The United States Geological Survey has some interesting and more complete definitions of drought at: [].

While visiting your favorite park, you may have noticed how little water you found in the rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. Low flow in water bodies may be one sign of drought. Water levels fall when there is not enough precipitation to replenish water evaporated from streams and other bodies of water. For example, when it rains, water bodies may be replenished by surface water runoff (the water running downhill into lakes, streams, etc.) or by ground water (water that has seeped into the ground and created a saturated layer of soil). Ground water is the reason why some bodies of water can remain flowing during long periods without precipitation. (If you would like to learn more about ground water and rivers/streams, go to the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Water Science for Schools web pages.)

Since the 1970s, the percentage of Earth's land area stricken by serious drought has more than doubled. Global warming is largely blame
 * 1) Drought is related to a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time.
 * 2) While much of the weather that we experience is brief and short-lived, droughts are unique in that they are a gradual phenomenon that in severe cases can last for many years and can have devastating effects on agriculture and water supplies.
 * 3) Of all the water on earth, only .003% is available fresh water that is not polluted, trapped in soil, or too far under ground. During a drought, shared sources of water such as reservoirs, rivers and groundwater for wells are in jeopardy of running dry.
 * 4) One of the interesting features of drought is that it can occur in any climate–arid or humid.
 * 5) Droughts are a common feature of climate in California, Colorado, Georgia, and New York, as well as in Brazil, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, and Australia.
 * 6) In the United States, drought can have major impacts on agriculture, recreation and tourism, water supply, forest and wildland fires, energy production, and transportation.
 * 7) Nationwide losses from the U.S. drought of 1988 exceeded $40 billion, exceeding the losses caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the Mississippi River floods of 1993, and the San Francisco earthquake in 1989.
 * 8) In developing countries, drought may affect people’s access to food and water.
 * 9) In the Horn of Africa the 1984–1985 drought led to a famine which killed 750,000 people.

Between Spring and early Fall 2002, moderate to extreme drought conditions over large portions of 30 states resulted in an estimate of more than $ 10.0 billion in damages and costs

One of the most famous droughts occurred during the 1930s and lasted nearly a decade. It is referred to as the "dust bowl" (image at right). It was caused by a combination of drought and poor farming practices. Large areas of land without groundcover allowed winds to blow dust everywhere.



Emergency conditions continue throughout the affected area. Famine conditions in south and central Somalia declared by the UN and ongoing conflict in that country have also led to children and adults crossing borders into Ethiopia and Kenya since 2011 began.

In addition, analyses of climate records and experiments with climate models have led climatologists to believe that many of the droughts in tropical regions are associated with global patterns of sea surface temperature anomalies (differences from normal) such as El Niño. During an El Niño, the anomalously warm equatorial Pacific Ocean warms the overlying atmosphere, which leads to changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, and increased probabilities of drought in many parts of the world.

> And then the dispossessed were drawn west — from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless — restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do — to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut — anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land. — [|John Steinbeck]. //The Grapes of Wrath//, 1939 When pioneers began to migrate across the country in the middle of the 19th century, they were in search of ideal farmland. What they saw, in the vast expanse of prairie in the Midwest, was a promised land. The grass that covered the plains stood six feet high and stretched all the way from Canada south to Texas. Homesteaders flocked to the grasslands, certain that they had found the richest soil in the world and the ideal place to settle down. Men began to clear the land — using the endless prairie to grow wheat, and the trees to build houses, barns and outbuildings. What was unknown to these early pioneers was that the grass and trees of the plains essentially nourished and held the soil in place with their tough roots. When they were gone, the moisture that would have gone to the roots ran off into creeks, streams and rivers — basically carrying the land with it. The scene was set for the Dust Bowl. In 1930, there was no better place to be a farmer than in the Southern Plains, where men and women had turned untamed prairie into one of the most prosperous regions in the whole country. The rest of the nation was struggling with the initial effects of the [|Great Depression], but in wheat country, farmers were reaping a record-breaking crop. With the onset of [|World War I], the demand for wheat had been astonishing. Farmers were paid record prices. Thus, to the farmer, it made sense to turn every inch of the Southern Plains into profit. During the war, the land produced millions and millions of bushels of wheat and corn, which helped to feed America as well as numerous nations overseas. The farming practices that made the plains so productive were beginning to take a toll on the land. The grasslands had been deeply plowed and planted. During the years when there was adequate rainfall, the land produced bountiful crops. However, as a drought that started in the early 1930s persisted, the farmers kept plowing and planting with increasingly dismal results. In 1930 and early 1931, the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles were known as the most prosperous regions in the nation. For plains farmers, the decade opened with prosperity and growth. But in the summer of 1931, those farmers would face the most difficult eight years of their lives.... The rain simply stopped. It had taken a thousand years for Nature to build an inch of topsoil on the Southern Plains, but it took only minutes for one good blow to sweep it all away. The water level of lakes dropped by five feet or more. The wind picked up the dry soil that had nothing to hold it down. Great black clouds of dust began to blot out the sun. In some places, the dust drifted like snow, darkening the sky for days, covering even well-sealed homes with a thick layer of dust on everything. Dust storms engulfed entire towns. The primary impact area of the Dust Bowl, as it came to be known, was on the Southern Plains. The Northern Plains weren't so badly affected, but the drought, dust, and agricultural decline were felt there as well. The agricultural devastation helped to lengthen the Great Depression, whose effects were felt worldwide. One hundred million acres of the Southern Plains were turning into a wasteland of the Dust Bowl. Large sections of five states were affected — Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. In 1932, the national weather bureau reported 14 dust storms. The next year, they were up to 38. The dust was so thick that people scooped up bucketsful while cleaning house. Dust blocked exterior doors; to get outside, people had to climb out their windows and shovel the dust away. Dust coated everything. Nevertheless, farmers kept on plowing, hopeful that the rains would return in a matter of days, or perhaps months. In the spring of 1934, the massive drought impacted 27 states severely and affected more than 75 percent of the country. The Dust Bowl was result of the worst drought in U.S. history. Families survived on cornbread, beans, and milk. People were beginning to give up hope, and a mass exodus — the largest migration in American history — ensued from the plains. Many families packed their belongings, piled them on their cars and moved westward, fleeing the dust and desert of the Midwest for Washington, Oregon and California. They were willing to work for any wage at all, planting and harvesting other people's lands. When those families reached the borders of those western states, they were not well received — too many people already there were out of work. Many California farms were corporate owned, meaning they were larger and more modernized than what the farmers were used to. Families often lived in tar-paper shacks with no floor or plumbing. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Dust Bowl states toward the [|Pacific]states. In the fall of 1934, with cattle feed depleted, the government began to buy and destroy thousands of starving livestock. Of all the government programs during that time, the cattle slaughter was the most wrenching for farmers. Although it was difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter helped many of them avoid bankruptcy. In the spring of 1935, the wind blew 27 days and nights without stopping. People and animals began to die of suffocation and "dust pneumonia." The government began to offer relief to farmers through President [|Franklin D. Roosevelt]’s New Deal. Roosevelt believed it was the federal government's duty to help the American people get through the bad times like the Dust Bowl. During the first three months of his presidency, a steady stream of bills were passed to relieve poverty, reduce unemployment and speed economic recovery. While these experimental programs did not end the Depression, the New Deal helped the American people immeasurably by taking care of their basic needs and giving them the dignity of work, and hope during trying times. Hugh Hammond Bennett, who came to be known as "the father of soil conservation," had been leading a campaign to reform farming practices well before Roosevelt became president. Bennett called for "...a tremendous national awakening to the need for action in bettering our agricultural practices." He urged a new approach to farming in order to avoid similar catastrophes. In April 1935, Bennett was on his way to testify before a Congressional committee about his soil conservation campaign when he learned of a dust storm blowing into the capitol from the western plains. At last, he believed that he would have tangible evidence of the results of bad farming practices. As the dust settled over Washington and blotted out the midday sun, Bennett exclaimed, "This, gentlemen, is what I have been talking about." Congress responded by passing the Soil Conservation Act of 1935. In addition, the [|Roosevelt administration]put its full weight and authority behind the improvement of farming techniques to prevent a recurrence of the Dust Bowl. President Roosevelt ordered that the [|Civilian Conservation Corps]plant a huge belt of more than 200 million trees from Canada to Abilene, Texas, to break the wind, hold water in the soil, and hold the soil itself in place. The administration also began to educate farmers on soil conservation and anti-erosion techniques, including crop rotation, strip farming, contour plowing, terracing and other beneficial farming practices. In 1937, the federal government began an aggressive campaign to encourage Dust Bowlers to adopt planting and plowing methods that conserve the soil. The government paid the reluctant farmers a dollar an acre to practice one of the new methods. By 1938, the massive conservation effort had reduced the amount of blowing soil by 65 percent. Nevertheless, the land failed to yield a decent living. In the fall of 1939, after nearly a decade of dirt and dust. the skies finally opened. With the rain's return, dry fields soon yielded their golden wheat once more, and just as quickly as it had begun, the Dust Bowl was, thankfully, over.
 * A promised land**
 * Cause and effect**
 * A meager existence**
 * Soil conservation**