Ground cracked by a drought(Bogomil Mihaylov / Unsplash)A drought has numerous effects on an area and the people living there. Learn more with Science Behind the Forecast.This transcript was edited for clarity and length.Bill Burton: It's time for us to take a look at the Science Behind the Foreca st as I'm joined by WAVE 3 meteorologist Tawana Andrew. Good morning, Tawana.Tawana Andrew: Good morning. And, of course, when there's a lot of rain in the forecast, I talk about the opposite thing.BB: Of course! It makes perfect sense. We have had quite a bit of rain throughout the region of late, so let's talk drought and all of its ramifications. Tell us about a drought.TA: A drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low precipitation. That could be rain, it could be snow. That lack of adequate moisture can cause significant impacts on the environment, agriculture, water supply, and just our communities in general.Droughts can occur very, very slowly over a long period of time, or you can end up with a drought happening very quickly. We talked about flash droughts before. We can have droughts lasting a couple of weeks or months, even years, depending on the severity of the rainfall deficit and a region's climate overall. Droughts can lead to dry soil, crop failures, water shortages, and even an increased risk of wildfires.There's a couple of types of droughts. The one that most people think of is the meteorological drought.BB: I’m familiar with that one.TA: That one is just based on an area's rainfall deficit and how long an area stays dry.There's also a hydrologic drought. That takes not only the rainfall deficit but also its impact on the water supply. You'll have things like stream flow, the groundwater table, reservoirs, lake levels, all being impacted in a hydrologic drought. These droughts can degrade vital functions of ecosystems, because they can reduce plant growth. You can see local species completely going away. It can even cause landscape transitions if there's not enough water for an extended period of time. You could have a forested area becoming a grassland. And that's happened in areas before.BB: If there’s not enough water for trees, that’s going to happen.TA: Exactly. That's just another way that droughts can impact us.Then there’s an agricultural drought. I know a lot of our farmers around here think about this one.BB: They watch that one closely.TA: Because you have soil water and rainfall deficits, there's a reduction in groundwater and an impact on reservoir levels. The drought can reduce not only water availability, but also water quality. That's super important, because you don't just want water for your crops, you want good water for your crops. On the other side of things, if it's too dry, that can lead to insect proliferation, and that is going to cause even more issues.BB: Nobody wants that.TA: When it comes to those guys, you definitely do not want that.The last drought is the socio-economic drought. For this one, it includes everything that I previously talked about, and its impact on the supply chain. Droughts can impact waterways and ports. Then if you couple a drought with high temperatures, you can impact railway lines and airport runways. If it's too hot and too dry, it's harder for an airplane to take off. Most people don't know that. Roads can start to buckle in situations like that, and that makes things more dangerous for travel, too. ...read more read less