'Drought is an extended period of dry weather leading to conditions of extreme dryness.’
A drought is a long period of time where there is not enough water to suffice the needs of the people (water stress) drought can happen anywhere, though most droughts happen along the equator, in certain areas of the world. In countries such as: Australia, Brazil, The Sahel, China, India and parts of the U.S and Mexico.
Most droughts occur in dry areas of land and regions that are dry.
There are many reasons as to why droughts occur it is mostly because there is very little rainfall, and if rainfall does occur it is absorbed quickly into the ground or it is blown away by the dry airflow along the ground. Countries may suffer droughts because of physical water scarcity, or economic water scarcity.
Droughts harm the livelihood of the people because if there is not enough rainfall, then the plants will die. Animals cannot survive without plants, if plants die animals will start to die. Some droughts are seasonal, though sometimes droughts can last for years.
The effects of droughts are hunger & famine, thirst, disease, fires, social conflict & war and migration or relocation of animals and people.
Characteristics of droughts can be measured in drought index and intensity duration frequency.
The spatial distribution of droughts are usually continentality, cold ocean currents, the influence of the ITCZ migration and the rain shadow effect.Though many droughts happen in different countries.
2 examples of droughts are Europe's droughts in 2003, and the 2013 drought in New Zealand.
The 2003 European heat wave was the hottest summer recorded in Europe since the 1500s. The heat and drought affected large parts of Western and Central Europe. It lasted from May to September but the maximum air temperature happened in June and August. The country of France was hit badly amongst all of the areas affected with an estimated death toll as high as 30,000. Harvests were down up to 50% and the electricity grid was also affected, as the demand for energy increased exponentially as the population relied on air conditioning and fridges. Over the duration of the disaster, the monthly mean temperatures were more than 4 degrees centigrade higher than the long term mean values. The drought experienced in the summer of 2003 is due to the severe lack of precipitation and above normal sunshine duration. It cause the vegetation growth across Europe to reduce by 30%.
In 2013, the droughts in New Zealand has been the worst in past 70 years. it is the most widespread droughts that ever happened in New Zealand. It was caused because of the slow-moving or blocking high pressure systems over the Tasman Sea and New Zealand over summer, not El Nino. The drought is currently on-going. “The recent drought was different, being related to persistent high pressure centers over New Zealand during summer- a trend that is increasing according to long pressure records.” (New Zealand Heralds) The most affected areas were Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and others. The risk of the drought will keep increase and will suffer from water resources and access.
This shows that droughts occur quite often at the equator and causes a lot of damage to the environment and livelihood of the people living in that area.
No comments:
Post a Comment