If our water supply comes from so many different local and distant sources, how can the public determine when we are actually in drought conditions?
Drought is a normal and recurring feature of climate. Although it occurs in virtually all of the world’s climatic zones, its characteristics vary significantly from one region to another. In some of the world’s most arid regions, a drought occurs when annual precipitation drops below 7 inches per year, while in the world’s most moisture rich regions, a period of 6 days without rain might constitute a drought! Consequently, there is no universal definition of drought. In the most general sense, drought is a result of a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time, resulting in a water shortage, which impacts normal water usage. The severity of a drought depends upon the degree of moisture deficiency, its duration, and the size of the affected area. Because it is so hard to develop a quantitative definition for drought, it is difficult to determine precisely when a drought starts and ends. Throughout much of the United States the Palmer Drought Severity Index (also known a
Related Questions
- If our water supply comes from so many different local and distant sources, how can the public determine when we are actually in drought conditions?
- Why is the TWDBs per-person water use figure (gallons per capita daily or GPCD) different from the one that my local utility has published?
- WHAT IS A PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY?
