Considering Droughts...more or less.
We don't generally think in terms of droughts when we think of America's vast planes...the breadbasket as it were...but we do get droughts, like the great Dust Bowl ... a problem made worse by poor farming techniques and an extended period of no rain.
How about today, any droughts in the US?
Maybe to your surprise, there are lots of drought problems in the United States today, entire regions low on water, or no water at all. And they are not all located in the same place...not just deserts, and not just in high temperature areas like Texas or Florida...in fact in some cases our desert lands are getting more rain than normal. This may be one of the keys to understanding the impact of the global warming trend. Droughts are potentially everywhere.
A drought is a prolonged, abnormally dry period when there is not enough water for users' normal needs. Drought is not simply low rainfall; if it was, much of inland America would be in almost perpetual drought.
Because people use water in so many different ways, there is no universal definition of drought.
Meteorologists monitor the extent and severity of drought in terms of rainfall deficiencies. Agriculturalists rate the impact on primary industries, hydrologists compare ground water levels, and sociologists define it on social expectations and perceptions. Drought is a high impact event...
posted by Moon Shadow @ 10:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home