Causes of Drought

A drought is the lack of precipitation over extended periods resulting in a water shortage.

When the temperature increases, water on the Earth's surface evaporates more quickly. This means that an overall increase in temperature results in periods without precipitation being drier.

Warming creates increased variability in weather patterns, making drier places and wetter places wetter. This means that dry places are more susceptible to droughts and wet places are more susceptible to floods.

• Increased temperatures also decrease snowpack (snow that does not melt and stays on the ground), making those places even drier in the summers when the snowpack would usually melt.
• This is also a cycle, as increased drought results in decreased plant cover and dry soils, which increases solar radiation and leads to increased high-pressure weather systems and further suppressing rainfall.