(n.) Dryness; want of rain or of water; especially, such dryness of the weather as affects the earth, and prevents the growth of plants; aridity.
(n.) Thirst; want of drink.
(n.) Scarcity; lack.
Example Sentences:
(1) Somalia has faced drought; famine; decades of conflict, now involving the Islamist rebels of al-Shabaab among other groups; the absence of an effective, central authority; and spiralling food prices.
(2) The loss of summer sea ice has led to unusual warming of the Arctic atmosphere, that in turn impacts weather patterns in the northern hemisphere , that can result in persistent extreme weather such as droughts, heatwaves and flooding," she said.
(3) President Nicolás Maduro has blamed the crisis on the fall in global oil prices, a drought that has hit hydroelectric power generation, and an “economic war” by rightwing businessmen and politicians.
(4) Agir, launched in June as the Sahel crisis was taking hold, lays out a roadmap for better co-ordination of humanitarian and development aid to protect the most vulnerable people when drought hits again.
(5) In the end, the emails from citizen scientists nailed the timing: “looks like it started maybe December 2015”; the severity: “I’ve seen dieback before, but not like this”; and the cause: “guessing it may be the consequence of the four-year drought”.
(6) "Groundwater levels in parts of our region are lower than they were during the 1976 drought, following below average rainfall for 18 of the last 23 months.
(7) Others are new: changing family compositions because of HIV, increasing frequency of droughts and rapid fluctuations in international commodity prices.
(8) It said the consequences of increased concentrations of those gases in the atmosphere were drought, flooding, wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels that had especially adverse impacts on the poor.
(9) They can expect to be swamped more often by tidal surges, battered by ever stronger typhoons and storms, and hit by deeper droughts.
(10) This was evidence, it seemed, for a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll which ranked drought as people’s top issue of concern.
(11) Parts of England and Wales have been hit by flooding in recent weeks after unusually wet weather followed two dry winters in a row that had left swaths of England in drought.
(12) "Heat stress, extreme precipitation, inland and coastal flooding, as well as drought and water scarcity pose risks in urban areas, with risks amplified for those lacking essential infrastructure and services or living in exposed areas," says the report, which makes this forecast with "very high confidence".
(13) Officials with the US Drought Monitor say a ridge of high pressure is to blame for keeping storms off the Pacific coast and guiding them to the east.
(14) Welbeck's goal drought came to an end when Rafael da Silva wriggled clear on the right and managed to dig out a deep cross that the unmarked Adnan Januzaj, whom Moyes felt came in for some rough treatment, headed against the far post.
(15) A cDNA clone encoding a Brassica napus drought-induced 22 kDa (BnD22) protein has been isolated and characterized.
(16) Parts of the state were finally beginning to rebuild on Sunday after weeks of rain and flooding that have made Texas a place of extremes: severe drought conditions earlier in the year that have given way to unprecedented rainfall in some areas.
(17) The authors report on the results of a 2-year study on the ecology and resistance to drought of B. umbilicatus and B. senegalensis on 3 temporary ponds in the North-Sudan area (region of Tambacounda, Senegal).
(18) The poor are often the people deeply rooted in place, whether they’re fisherfolk in the Mekong Delta (due to go underwater from rising seas) or farmers in desertifying Africa or India, where a horrific heatwave and drought killed at least 300 last month and left 330 million without enough water.
(19) Businesses, governments and all water managers must quickly and intelligently take measures to reduce vulnerability to droughts.
(20) America's drought threatens a recurrence of the 2008 global food crisis, when soaring prices set off riots and unrest to parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, food experts warn.