Last year, according to a Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, 48% of the Earth’s land surface experienced at least one month of extreme drought, up from an average of 15% in the 1980s.
In 2023, 30% of the world’s population endured severe drought for three months or more. The average in the 1980s was 5%.
The new analysis shows how quickly drought is accelerating and provides some of the most recent global statistics on the subject.
Rivers in the Amazon basin are at an all-time low due to drought.
How heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods are made worse by climate change.
A submerged Greek hamlet is revealed when a lake is dried up by drought.
After six months of extremely low rainfall, extremely high soil and plant evaporation, or both, the threshold for extreme drought is met.
It can impact energy supplies, transportation networks, and the economy, and it immediately threatens public health, food security, and water and sanitation.
Because a wide range of factors, including human land use and natural weather occurrences, influence water availability, the causes of specific droughts are complex.
However, worldwide rainfall patterns are changing due to climate change, increasing the likelihood of drought in some areas.
The Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and South America have seen the worst effects of the drought surge.
