A drought is a long period of time — months or even years — when a place gets much less rain or snow than usual. Droughts are different from other disasters: they arrive slowly and silently. There's no bang, no shaking, no wall of water. One day people simply notice that the rain hasn't come for a very long time.
When a drought drags on, streams shrink, lakes dry up, crops fail, and animals struggle to find food and water. Because droughts build up slowly, they can affect enormous areas and millions of people at the same time.
Cracked, thirsty earth during a drought. When soil loses its water, it shrinks and splits open into patterns like a giant jigsaw puzzle. See source ↓
🌾 Why droughts hurt so much
Plants need water to grow, and farms need plants! When crops fail, food becomes scarce and expensive. Farmers call drought the "creeping disaster" because it sneaks up slowly. Droughts can also dry out forests, making wildfires much more likely — two disasters teaming up!
📜 A bit of history
Scientists study tree rings to learn about droughts from long ago — thin rings mean dry years! They discovered "megadroughts" that lasted decades. Some historians think long droughts helped cause the fall of ancient civilisations, like the Maya cities of Central America.
📚 Picture Sources
- Photo 1 — Cracked earth during a drought. From Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drought.jpg
