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A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions. [1]: 1157 A drought can last for days, months or years.Drought often has large impacts on the ecosystems and agriculture of affected regions, and causes harm to the local economy.
Wildfires, forest fires, and brush fires were very prevalent in association with the 2000s (decade) drought in the Southeastern United States. The 2006-2008 Southeast U.S. drought caused over $1 billion in damage. [77] The drought of 2006–2007 in California contributed to the extreme severity of the 2007 California wildfires.
The drought dried the topsoil and over time it became friable, reduced to a powdery consistency in some places. Without indigenous grasses in place, the plains' high winds picked up the topsoil and created massive dust storms. [20] The persistent dry weather caused crops to fail, leaving the plowed fields exposed to wind erosion.
Since 2000, climate change has been the primary cause of both the expansion of the drought area and the increase in drought severity, with that percentage rising to over 90% during the drought period.
[8]: 746 [citation needed] Further, some fraction of the greenhouse warming has been "masked" by the human-caused emissions of sulfur dioxide, which forms aerosols that have a cooling effect. However, this masking has been receding in the recent years, due to measures to combat acid rain and air pollution caused by sulfates. [9] [10]
The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This is driven by a number of factors, alone or in combination, such as drought, climatic shifts, tillage for agriculture, overgrazing and deforestation for fuel or construction materials.
Temperatures above the historical average have exacerbated the drought. Despite some frosty mornings over the interior Northeast, the dryness of both the air and the ground has led to warm afternoons.
Aug. 3—West Virginians aren't the only ones wilting in the recent heat waves—the state's leafy inhabitants are a point of concern for state officials as severe drought conditions are expected ...