Flash droughts have always been a thing – the term refers to a drought that dries out the landscape to a given point within five days – and they don’t seem to be getting more frequent right now.
But.
What they are doing, is getting faster.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Texas Tech University found that although the number of flash droughts has remained stable during the past two decades, more of them are coming on faster. Globally, the flash droughts that come on the fastest — sending areas into drought conditions within just five days — have increased by about 3%-19%. And in places that are especially prone to flash droughts — such as South Asia, Southeast Asia and central North America — that increase is about 22%-59%.
Rising global temperatures are probably behind the faster onset, said co-author and UT Jackson School Professor Zong-Liang Yang, who added that the study’s results underscore the importance of understanding flash droughts and preparing for their effects.
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Flash droughts are relatively new to science, with the advancement of remote sensing technology during the past couple of decades helping reveal instances of soil rapidly drying out. This serves as the telltale sign of the onset of a flash drought and can make drought conditions appear seemingly out of the blue.
As the name suggests, flash droughts are short lived, usually lasting only a few weeks or months. But when they occur during critical growing periods, they can cause disasters. For example, in the summer of 2012, a flash drought in the central United States caused the corn crop to wither, leading to an estimated $35.7 billion in losses.
In this study, the scientists analyzed global hydroclimate data sets that use satellite soil moisture measurements to capture a global picture of flash drought and how it has changed during the past 21 years. The data showed that about 34%-46% of flash droughts came on in about five days. The rest emerge within a month, with more than 70% developing in half a month or less.
When they examined the droughts over time, they noticed the flash droughts happening more quickly.
The study also revealed the importance of humidity and variable weather patterns, with flash droughts becoming more likely when there’s a shift from humid to arid conditions. That makes regions that undergo seasonal swings in humidity — such as Southeast Asia, the Amazon Basin, and the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States — flash drought hot spots.
“We should pay close attention to the vulnerable regions with a high probability of concurrent soil drought and atmospheric aridity,” said Wang.
Mark Svoboda, the director of the National Drought Mitigation Center and originator of the term “flash drought,” said the advancement in drought-detecting technology and modeling tools — such as those used in this study — has led to growing awareness of the influence and impact of flash droughts. He said the next big step is translating this knowledge into on-the-ground planning.
“You can go back and watch that drought evolve in 2012 and then compare it to how that tool did,” said Svoboda, who was not part of the study. “We really have the stage well set to do a better job of tracking these droughts.”
I think what this means, from the point of view of agriculture, is that it’s very possible that without maintaining a reserve supply of water against flash droughts, a crop could be destroyed before there’s time to organize an emergency response. As with so many other aspects of living with climate change, it seems to me that step one is to create a society that values storing up resources against need, rather than using as much as we produce, as we produce it. It’s not a guaranteed solution to all problems, but it is a way to make it likely that you’ll have the time and energy to come up with a more tailored solution to whatever your problem is, because you’re less likely to be focused on bare survival.
Luck favors the prepared.
… flash droughts becoming more likely when there’s a shift from humid to arid conditions. That makes regions that undergo seasonal swings in humidity — such as Southeast Asia, the Amazon Basin, and the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States — flash drought hot spots.
Here in the Florida peninsula, just about exactly between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and with mostly sandy soil, we can tell ya all about that.
Having the crops dry up is in some ways the lesser part of the excitement found living here. Right now, we’re in basically flood conditions: about seven inches of rain in the last week has left standing water a few inches deep all around (and under) my house (a woodframe cottage up on cement blocks), with several days of further precipitation due before we can expect even to get back to just plain mud everywhere.
And all this, while a dangerous nuisance – the displaced poisonous cottonmouth snakes arguably the worst hazard – is only the prelude. We will next see fantastic growth spurts in the surrounding woodlands, particularly of vines and underbrush, creating unbelievable tangles – and whenever that fresh biomass dries out, in a flash or otherwise, we’ll have a record-breaking wildfire season, with kiloacres of tinder ready to flare up at a spark (fun fact to know & tell: north central Florida has more lightning than anywhere else on this planet).
Of course, I left the zinger for last. We also get more than our share of big hairy hurricanes, of course, sometimes leaving miles upon miles of flattened forests. Back in 2018, Hurricane Michael devastated a few counties’ worth of woodlands in the rural central panhandle Gulf Coast area, most of it too torn up (on roads too torn up) for even redneck timber crews to salvage. Whenever – this year, next year, ’24 – that (also sandy-soiled) area flash-dries, Florida, having already out-crazied California, will out-conflagrate it too.
But at least the elementary school kids here will remain blissfully ignorant of societal racism and what LGBTQ+ means!