Drought

Common consequences of drought include:
* Diminished crop growth or yield productions and carrying capacity for livestock
* Dust bowls, themselves a sign of erosion, which further erode thelandscape
* Dust storms, when drought hits an area suffering from desertification and erosion
* Famine due to lack of water for irrigation
* Habitat damage, affecting both terrestrial andaquatic wildlife[4]
* Malnutrition, dehydration and related diseases
* Mass migration, resulting in internal displacement and international refugees
* Reduced electricity production due toreduced water flow through hydroelectric dams[5]
* Shortages of water for industrial users[6][7]
* Snake migration and increases in snakebites[8]
* Social unrest
* War over naturalresources, including water and food
* Wildfires, such as Australian bushfires, are more common during times of drought[9]
Causes
Generally, rainfall is related to the amount of water vapor in theatmosphere, combined with the upward forcing of the air mass containing that water vapor. If either of these are reduced, the result is a drought. This can be triggered by an above average prevalenceof high pressure systems, winds carrying continental, rather than oceanic air masses (i.e. reduced water content), and ridges of high pressure areas form with behaviors which prevent or restrict thedeveloping of thunderstorm activity or rainfall over one certain region. Oceanic and atmospheric weather cycles such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) make drought a regular recurring featureof the Americas along the Midwest and Australia. Guns, Germs, and Steel author Jared Diamond sees the stark impact of the multi-year ENSO cycles on Australian weather patterns as a key reason thatAustralian aborigines remained a hunter-gatherer society rather than adopting agriculture.[36] Another climate oscillation known as the North Atlantic Oscillation has been tied to droughts in northeast...