Drought Formation

Drought formation is the development of a prolonged, abnormal deficit of precipitation relative to a region long-term average, most often driven by a persistent high-pressure ridge that blocks storm tracks and suppresses rainfall over the affected area for weeks to months at a time. Because it develops slowly and its effects, soil moisture depletion, falling reservoir and groundwater levels, crop failure, compound and lag behind the rainfall shortfall itself, drought is tracked through several distinct forms, meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socioeconomic, each measuring the deficit a different way. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/