Droughts
- 1. By Deepika Droughts
- 2. What are Droughts? A drought is a period of time when there is a lack of water on land. Plants and crops do not grow properly, plants and animals die and streams and river shrivel up. Because farm crops and animals die due to lack of water, there is less food for people to eat, and the price of food goes up. If a drought lasts a long time, people may also die of starvation and the land might turn into a desert.
- 3. What causes Droughts? Droughts are always caused by the weather. This is why they are under the category of weather disasters. This is when there is scarce or no rainfall and the land becomes barren. Water vapor can only condense if air rises into cold regions of the atmosphere. If the air doesn’t rise, then there is no rainfall. When the air pressure is high, air falls instead of rising. No currents of water vapor are carried upward. Therefore no condensation occurs, and little rain falls to earth. High pressured areas usually result in sunny, cloudless weather. Low-pressure systems have more cloudy, stormy weather. When there is constant high pressure in an area the result is a drought.
- 4. Interesting Facts There is a severe drought that affects some part of Australia atleast once every 18 years. Australia’s weather is not affected by global weather changes and our rainfall pattern is the most variable in the world! This is due to our size, location, geography and climatic range. It also means that many areas in Australia are subject to regular threat of drought. Out of every 10 years, Australia has around 3 good years, 4 average years and 3 bad ones. In fact we have just come out of a drought that, luckily, hasn’t affected us too much.