DROUGHTS

By: Maaz Syed

Causes• Lack of rain• High Temperature

Effects• Migration• Loss of homelands • Economic and Agriculture Problems

Real Life Example• Dust Bowl in Great Plains.

Preventions• Store water.• Water plants and trees regularly.• Saving rain water.• Protect underwater resources.

Description: The USA map above shows the amount of wetness from 1948 to 2009, according to NASA i.e. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. As shown in map, the Northern areas are much wet then Southern areas. The state of New York is much wet then Texas, because Texas is colored dark brown, which shows that it is rather dryer then the blue state (NY), which shows more wetness.

Source: "Groundwater and Soil Moisture Conditions from GRACE Data Assimilation." Groundwater and Soil Moisture Conditions from GRACE Data Assimilation. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Jan. 2013.

Description: The maps above show the drought intensity of 2 different years. The first map shows the intensity in the year of 2000, where as the second map shows the intensity in the year of 2013. Both maps have very different intensities noted. As we can see, in 2000 there were no red or dark brown spots, which show great droughts. Where as in 2013, the western areas as the Great Plains consist a great amount of droughts, which shows how much temperature and amount of droughts have rose in these years.

Source: "Drought Monitor Archives." U.S. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2013.

Source: "World Wide Daily Drought Risk Map." World Wide Daily Drought Risk Map. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2013

Description: The world map above shows the current droughts happening around the world. The areas with orange and red spots are the ones with the serious and worst droughts. The Great Plains and different areas in South America are greatly affected by droughts. Asia is not much affected, but some parts of Europe and Australia are affected from droughts.

Source: "Dessler: âPaying the Price for Climate ��Changeâ or a Case of Flawed Statistical ��Analysis? | Watts Up With That?" Watts Up With That. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Jan. 2013

Description: The graph above shows the amount of rainfall in the months of June-July in Texas over the years of 1890 to 2011. There was a major rise spotted from in between years of 2005 and 2007, and a great decrease from the year of 2010 to 2011. This shows the rainfall is less, which means droughts are increasing.

ConclusionBased on the evidence shown above, we can determine that lack of rainfall over long period of time causes droughts. Droughts can be determined by the amount of rainfall or the temperature in an area. In next 100 years if the droughts percentage rises on this scale, it is possible that oceans could get much smaller, and dry land will take over.