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Drought Facts & Worksheets

Drought occurs when there is insufficient water to support the needs of people, animals, and plants for an extended time.

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A drought occurs when there is insufficient water to support the needs of people, animals, and plants for an extended time. This event occurs when an area receives less precipitation, such as rain, snow, sleet, or hail, than usual over some time – long enough to result in a decline in water availability.

See the fact file below for more information on Drought, or you can download our 29-page Drought worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

All About Drought

  • Droughts have happened throughout history and are a natural occurrence in most places due to climate. 
  • In 9500 BCE, in Chile, a drought was connected to hunter-gatherer migrations. 
  • Another historical drought in India killed between 250,000 and 3.25 million people in 1900. 
  • A drought in the Soviet Union killed 5 million people from famine between 1921 and 1922.
  • The Millennium Drought in Australia began in 1997 and lasted 13 years. It caused a water crisis throughout most of the country.
  • People eventually built desalination plants for the first time to convert salt water into drinking water since there was insufficient precipitation or fresh water from other sources. This drought was eventually over in 2010.

Drought  Patterns 

  • Most droughts occur when typical weather patterns are disrupted, causing the water cycle to be affected. 
  • Storm tracks can become delayed for months or years due to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns. 
  • This disruption has the potential to have a significant impact on the amount of precipitation that a region regularly receives. 
  • Wind patterns can also impact how moisture is absorbed in different areas.
  • Scientists have linked specific climate patterns and droughts.
  • El Niño is a weather occurrence in which the temperature of surface water in the Pacific Ocean along South America‘s central coast increases.
  • Warmer waters change storm patterns and are linked to droughts in Indonesia, Australia, and northeastern South America. El Niño, which occurs every two to seven years, keeps climate experts guessing.
  • La Niña is the polar opposite of El Niño and occurs when the surface water cools in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.  
  • More tremendous seas influence storm patterns by causing drier-than-normal weather in North and South American regions. 
  • Both El Niño and La Niña typically last around a year. The impacts of La Niña on weather patterns are frequently more complex than those of El Niño. 
  • The effects of La Niña have been linked to two of the most devastating droughts in US history: the 1930s Dust Bowl and the 1988 Midwest drought.

Types of Drought 

  • Meteorological droughts are characterized by dry winds, high temperatures, and a lack of humidity. 
  • This type of drought is distinguished by a lack of moisture in the atmosphere or precipitation. 
  • When these conditions persist for an extended period, they may result in a water crisis, but they can occur quickly.
  • Agricultural droughts are defined by decreasing atmospheric moisture and detrimental impacts on soil moisture. 
  • This sort of drought has the same impact on crops and animals as meteorological droughts. Furthermore, this drought can frequently result in food shortages, particularly for farm-based foods.
  • Hydrological drought occurs when a decreased precipitation in an area causes a shortage of surface water and groundwater supply.
  • Because of insufficient precipitation, agriculture and energy become overly reliant on surface or groundwater. Although these droughts do not coincide with the meteorological type, they can result in one.
  • Socioeconomic drought takes a long time for a drought to reach this stage and even longer for an area to recover from one. Droughts are defined by a decline in the supply of commodities and services such as energy, food, and drinking water. Population growth or excessive demand for those supplies can put a strain on the limited amount of water available.

Significant Droughts in the Past Century

  • The Dust Bowl had an unintended consequence of mass migration. 
  • Farmers and their families were compelled to relocate to other places in search of work, and 2.5 million people had departed the Great Plains by 1940. 
  • Two hundred thousand of them relocated to California. 
  • The surge of migrants into already-stressed economies exacerbated by the Great Depression led to increased conflict, unemployment, and poverty.
  • Drought returned to the Great Plains and the southern United States in the 1950s, affecting half of the continental United States. 
  • Crop yield in certain areas was reduced by nearly half due to low rainfall and hot temperatures. 
  • Ranchers were forced to feed their livestock prickly pear cactus and molasses because hay became too expensive. By the time the five-year drought ended in 1957, 244 of Texas’ 254 counties had been designated federal drought disaster regions.
  • The United States had one of the most expensive droughts in the late 1980s. The Corn Belt’s harvests were destroyed by three years of high temperatures and low rainfall. 
  • The cost of all energy, water, environmental, and agricultural losses is $39 billion.
  • Federal assistance programs helped many farmers, but a prolonged drought would make it more difficult for the government to give nationwide assistance. 
  • Droughts continue to plague the United States. Texas has been experiencing drought since 2010, with 2011 being the driest year in state history. 
  • Texas was dubbed “The New Dust Bowl” in a September 2012 National Geographic magazine story, and 99 percent of the state was suffering by 2013 from drought.
  • Drought is also a common occurrence in Australia. The last decade has been particularly harsh, garnering the moniker “Big Dry” or “Millennium Drought.” 
  • Water restrictions were imposed over much of the country, wildfires occurred due to the dry weather, and water levels in some dams fell below 25%.
  • Drought was declared on 65 percent of Australia’s viable land in 2007. In April 2012, the drought was officially declared finished.
  • Droughts in underdeveloped countries can inflict considerably more harm. In the 1970s and 1980s, the African Sahel region, which contains eight countries, saw a series of droughts that reduced yearly rainfall by around 40%. More than 100,000 people died, and millions were forced to relocate in the early 1970s.
  • Drought, overpopulation, poor crops, and high food prices have all exacerbated the situation in the area.
  • Drought emergencies have been proclaimed four times in the region since 2000.
  • Droughts are especially dangerous in the Horn of Africa, which includes Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. 
  • Drought is frequently accompanied by famine because about 80 percent of the population is rural and relies on agriculture for food and income.
  • Conflict and bloodshed can result from struggles for the region’s few surviving resources.
  • The Horn of Africa saw one of the worst droughts of the twentieth century between 1984 and 1985. 
  • According to UN estimates, 1 million people died in Ethiopia alone, 1.5 million cattle died, and 8.7 million people were affected by the drought, including being hospitalized, forced to migrate, or forced to change professions. 
  • One million people died in Sudan, at least seven million cattle died, and 7.8 million people were affected.
  • Drought-famine-conflict cycles have persisted in the region since 2000, with drought conditions reappearing every few years. Drought devastated 11 million people in the Horn of Africa in 2006, and in the subsequent crisis, an estimated 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed, with a further 13 million affected.

Effects of Droughts

  • There are various types of droughts, just as there are various types of consequences. Droughts can have three significant repercussions aside from a lack of drinking water: environmental, economic, and social. 
  • Some of the environmental consequences are lower water levels, more significant water pollution, dried-out wetlands, more frequent and larger fires, and sickly trees and plants. 
  • Furthermore, they can lead to a decrease in biodiversity and an increase in the presence of pests and illnesses.
  • Economic consequences include agricultural losses, decreased gaming and fishing productivity, and higher food production expenses. 
  • Lower energy levels in hydroelectric plants are also included, as are losses in tourism and businesses that rely on water for manufacturing.
  • Finally, the social repercussions of droughts include decreased human health and increased pollution. 
  • They can also increase food prices, generate stress, and widen the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries.

Drought Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Drought across 29 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Drought, which occurs when there is insufficient water to support the needs of people, animals, and plants for an extended time.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Drought Facts
  2. Word Connect
  3. Write that Facts
  4. What You Learned
  5. Try to Remember 
  6. Share Information
  7. Be Wary of Calamity
  8. Prepare to Survive
  9. Care to Tell the Story
  10. Bingo! 
  11. Envision This

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Link will appear as Drought Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, November 14, 2022

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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