Anna Faszcza Drought on the Go

Droughts are one of the most commonly faced threats nowadays. Some countries struggle withstruggle withstruggle with them more often than others. Undoubtedly, water supplywater supplywater supply determinesdetermines [determine]determines people's lives and its prolonged shortageprolonged shortageprolonged shortage is greatly dangerous.

A.
A drought is a long period of time when there is little or no rain in a certain area. During this time, the region receivesregion receives [receive]region receives less precipitationprecipitationprecipitation (rain, snow, sleet). Its impact is uneasy and affects the whole community. Droughts can vary in the size, the intensity or how long they last.

B.
When the region receives less rain than usual, it has a rainfall deficiencyrainfall deficiencyrainfall deficiency. Low rainfalls lead tolead tolead to less runoffrunoffrunoff, which results in a hydrological drought. It happens usually with high temperatures. The river level falls, water storagewater storagewater storage drops and soils get dry. When this happens, an agricultural drought seems to be the tragic consequence of it, which means reduced productivity in crops. A flash droughtflash droughtflash drought, on the other hand, influences the crops when there are no rainfalls in the growing season for a few weeks.

C.
Different regions receive different amounts of rain in seasons across the world. For instance, the average precipitation in the deserts of the American Southwest turns out to be less than about 76 mm a year, while in Atlanta, it is about 1270 mm of water. When the soil gets less moisture and there is a lack of groundwatergroundwatergroundwater, it dries outdries out [dry out]dries out and consequently plants fadeplants fade [fade]plants fade and die. When this time prolongsprolongs [prolong]prolongs, a problem with the water supply appears and the dry perioddry perioddry period becomes a drought.

D.
Scientists found a way to analyse past weather conditions. They pull out a sliver of a trunksliver of a trunksliver of a trunk and examine tree ringstree rings [tree ring]tree rings. Thick rings are a sign of wet years when there was enough water for the trees to grow faster. This way they revealed that in 2014, California faced “extreme drought”. Between 2011 and 2015, there was very little rain and, to make things worse, the area was affected by violent heat wavesviolent heat waves [violent heat wave]violent heat waves, which destroyed almost all the moisture in the soilmoisture in soilmoisture in the soil. The study from the University of Minnesota and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution claimed 2014 to have been the most severeseveresevere drought in 1200 years.

E.
Yes and no. Rain obviously helps but it doesn’t stop the drought straight away. The shower rainshower rainshower rain helps plants to green up again in contrast to a heavy rainheavy rainheavy rain which is not absorbedabsorbed [absorb]absorbed into the soil and evaporatesevaporates [evaporate]evaporates quickly into the air. Moreover, a sudden thunderstorm with heavy rains can cause a flash floodflash floodflash flood, which makes it impossible for the water to soaksoaksoak into the soil.

F.
The GOES‑R Weather Satellite makes it a great tool for all the farmers who fear sudden and destructive droughts. It provides information about the amount of heat on Earth by registering the thermal infrared imagesthermal infrared images [thermal infrared image]thermal infrared images. This way, scientists may predictpredictpredict and calculate the risk of flash drought in a particular region and warn farmers about upcoming heatupcoming heatupcoming heat.

It is obvious that we can neither control the weather nor droughts, but there is something we all should keep in mind. It is our duty to learn to conserve water supplyconserve water supplyconserve water supply and use it reasonably in everyday life.

1 Źródło: Anna Faszcza, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.