GC: n
S: FAO – http://www.fao.org/emergencies/emergency-types/drought/en/ (last access: 7 July 2016); http://drought.unl.edu/droughtbasics/whatisdrought.aspx (last access: 7 July 2016).
N: 1. Old English drugað, drugoð “drought, dryness, desert,” from Proto-Germanic *drugothaz, from Germanic root *dreug- “dry” with *-itho, Germanic suffix for forming abstract nouns. Drouth was a Middle English variant continued in Scottish and northern English dialect and in poetry.
2. A lack or insufficient amount of rain for an extended period of time is called drought. Drought causes water shortages, crop damage, streamflow reduction, and the depletion of groundwater and soil moisture, and has a serious negative impact on agriculture.
3. There are four basic types of drought: unpredictable drought, permanent drought, seasonal drought, and invisible drought. Unpredictable drought is the abnormal failure of rainfall in an area where rainfall is normally adequate. Such droughts usually do not affect a very large area and generally occur in regions that are scientifically classified as humid or subhumid. One example of an unpredictable drought was the Dust Bowl of the early 1930s, the worst drought in American history. Winds carried away the topsoil from millions of acres of American farmland, from North Dakota to Texas and from Colorado to Missouri.
4. Permanent drought characterizes the driest climates, such as the arid parts of the American Southwest or East Africa: the latter region experienced its most severe drought of the 20th century in the 1980s. In such regions agriculture is impossible without permanent irrigation.
5. Seasonal drought occurs in climates that have well-defined rainy and dry seasons. Such regions are said to have tropical or subtropical climates. Many of these regions lie near the Equator: the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and portions of Africa, Central America, and South America. Southern California and southern Australia are also subject to seasonal droughts. For agriculture to be successful, planting of crops must be adjusted so growth will take place in the rainy season.
6. Invisible drought occurs in summer when high temperatures induce high rates of evaporation. Even frequent showers cannot replace the lost water. This results in a borderline water deficiency that reduces crop yields.
7. Collocations:
- Adj. severe, terrible, worst; long, prolonged; summer.
- Verb + drought: have; cause; break.
- drought + verb: affect sth Large areas of Africa are affected by severe drought.
- drought + noun: conditions.
- Prep.: during/in drought. Some of the newer plants in the garden died during the drought.
- Phrases: in times of drought, months/years of drought.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=drought (last access: 7 July 2016). 2 to 6. http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9274068/drought (last access: 7 July 2016). 7. OD – http://oxforddictionary.so8848.com/search?word=drought (last access: 23 August 2016)
SYN:
S:
CR: arid zone, desert, desertification, dog days, erosion.
