13 - RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE 2017 LAMAR COUNTY MITIGATION PLAN

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Lamar County Multi- Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan Chapter Three HAZARD PROFILE: SECTION FOUR- DROUGHT 1. DESCRIPTION The lack of or shortage in amount of rainfall for an extended period of time is crippling not just to farmers but to the general public. Drought is caused by a deficiency of precipitation over a prolonged period of time. This deficiency results in water shortages and climatic factors such as high temperatures, strong winds, and low relative humidity can augment the severity of the drought. True drought is defined as less than 75% of the average yearly rainfall between 1931 and 1960. According to the publication Rangeland Risk Management for Texas, produced by Agricultural Communications, The Texas A &M University System, in Texas this level of drought occurs from 16% to 45% of the time. These percentages increase when moving from East to Far West Texas. Droughts tend to be more severe in some areas than in others. Catastrophic droughts generally occur at latitudes of about 15 -20 degrees, in areas bordering the permanently arid regions of the world. In North America, archaeological studies of Native Americans and statistics derived from long -term agricultural Drought - "a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently prolonged for the lack of water to cause serious hydrologic imbalance in the affect area" - Glossary of Meteorology (1959). records show that six or seven centuries ago whole f areas of the Southwest were abandoned by the indigenous agriculturists because of repeated droughts and were never reoccupied. statistics indicate that roughly every 22 years —with a precision The of three to four years —a major drought occurs in the United States, most seriously affecting the Prairie and Mid - Western Droughts caused at States. A drought is a period of abnormally dry weather which least $1 billion in persists long enough to produce a serious hydrologic imbalance. crop damage per There are four ways that drought can be defined: year in the U.S for nine of the 25 years • Meteorological - a measure of departure of precipitation between 1980 and from normal 2nnS • Agricultural - refers to a situation when the amount of moisture in the soil no longer meets the needs of a particular crop. • Hydrological - occurs when surface and subsurface water are below normal. • Socioeconomic - The situation that occurs when physical water shortage begins to affect people. 2. LOCATION