WEBVTT - How Droughts Work 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:04.480 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:13.399 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.520 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry the chairs 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:22.799 their making copies. Uh, and this is stuff you Should Know. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.840 That was a classic skit, wouldn't you say? And one 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.400 of the only ones I liked by that guy by 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.960 Rob Schneider. Yeah. I wasn't the biggest fan. Uh. Did 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:37.080 you see the one We're stinging? He's like staying stingling 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:42.680 ling ding ding making copies. Yeah, I mean I'm not 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.600 anti Rob Schneider, but I just wasn't like, how could 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.920 you be anti Rob Schneider honestly nobody. It's like being 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.680 mad at like a friendly horse or something. Yeah, exactly, 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:57.000 that's stupid friendly horse. Yeah. I hate his gutsy Uh 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.560 what a weird intro? Yeah, well, part for their course 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.240 pretty much my friend. Well, although his career has dried up. 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.720 Oh that was good and vicious. Man. I hope he 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.440 doesn't listen before we get into the whole drying up reference. Chuck, 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.720 we are long, long, long overdue for giving a huge 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.800 shout out to our Kiva team. Yeah that's right. Uh. 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.880 Several years ago. It feels like many years ago. We 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.880 did a podcast on micro lending and we said, hey, 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:31.000 let's start a Kiva team. Kiva is a international lending 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.240 organization micro lending where they pair you with people. Actually 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.800 they it's all over the world. Now you need money 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.280 on a small basis, you loan them the money. You 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.480 can get paid back and pull your money back out, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:44.520 or you can reload it. And we have a very 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.840 active team. And let's hear some numbers. Okay, so um, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.240 our team captain Glenn of Glenn and Sonya team captain 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:55.120 Fame sent us some stats recently. We have the stuff 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.280 you should know. Team has eight thousand, four hundred and 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:03.920 fifty three members great as as of July thirty one. Yeah. Um, 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:05.840 how much have we loaned so far? Are you ready 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:07.520 for this? We need a drum roll, Jerry? Can we 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:09.280 put in some sort of drum roll effect or at 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:16.960 Wilhelm scream or something like that? All right, Okay, that's nice, 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.080 that's very good. Here we go three million, two hundred 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:24.720 and fifty one thousand, twenty five dollars. Dude, that is crazy. 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.799 And that's out of a hundred and seventeen thousand, five 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.480 hundred and thirty nine loans, which is a total thirteen 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.280 point nine loans per member. I don't know how people 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.399 are doing like nine tenths of a loan, but that's 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.000 impressive in and of itself. Yeah, so what that means 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.680 is people get repaid and they just kind of do 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:43.480 what I think we do was just kind of roll 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.600 that into another loan. Yeah, you relan it. They make 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.040 great gifts. I think at least one person sent you 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.799 a Cheva gift card to congratulate you and Emily on 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.600 Ruby Rose. That's right, And that's always a nice thing. 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.959 You can do at holiday times or birthdays whenever. It's 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:58.799 not too late to join, like we're not like, oh, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.160 you're new to the team. Like it's a very supportive, 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.160 great team and again, like you said, very active. You 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.480 can go to kiva dot org slash teams I believe 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.840 it's plural slash stuff you should know, or just search 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.040 stuff you should know on kiva dot org and we'll 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.200 bring up our team and you can join and be 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.480 embraced by our teammates. That's right. Yeah, So thanks to 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.680 Glenn Sonia as always for nudging us in the right 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.639 direction and keeping up with the stats. Big help and 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.720 um and congratulations to a team on getting the three 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.920 point to five million dollars and change and loans. Absolutely okay, 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:40.080 So droughts, huh, Rob Snyder Kiva droughts the natural progression 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:44.600 of things. Don't forget sting was in there. Um, all right, 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:50.400 let's talk droughts their serious thing. Yeah, I mean it's uh, 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.240 it's it's natural disaster is what it is. It is. 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.200 Although so Robert Lamb wrote this article that that forms 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.800 the basis of this in part. Yeah, Robert of us 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.480 to blow your mind award winning stuff, to blow your mind. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:07.160 they wanted to work. Congratulations. Um. The heat points out 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.760 that droughts are fairly natural. There's a lot of debate 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:16.400 over whether climate change exacerbates droughts. Um, but for the 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.560 most part, droughts are natural. They're seasonal, they're temporal. They 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.000 come and go or in some cases they just stay 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.360 and then you got a desert and it's it becomes 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.400 a natural disaster when you apply humanity to it. Kind 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.680 of like do you remember those overhead projectors and they 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.039 would have transparencies, so there could be like different they 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:40.760 could overlay stuff, so so you have drought transparency, it's 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.120 just whatever. But then you overlay humanity on it and 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.599 then it becomes a natural disaster. Yeah, I thought that 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.720 was a pretty good point actually, when that Robert made 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.440 um in and of itself. If there were no humans, 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.159 that would be a drought. Um. The land would dry 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.920 up in certain regions, Animals would leave because there's no water. 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.920 But it's like who cares not humans, Vegetation would die 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.240 or the few animals that could stay would stay, and 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.680 the few plants that could still grow would grow, and 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.960 then that would just be the new ecosystem, right, and 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.960 then no big potentially, if it wasn't permanent, it would 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.120 shift back and the the the life would come back 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:23.160 to the area. But again, humans, like you said, wouldn't 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:27.200 give a big whoop if it wasn't for humans living everywhere, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.599 growing crops everywhere, and using tons and tons of water 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.359 mostly to grow those crops. So we've talked about this 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:38.920 again and again, but um, if what I saw the 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:43.960 most recent stead I came across, of the global supply 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:49.880 of fresh water is used to irrigate crops, and of 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:55.200 that only half is reused, is captured and reused, So 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.560 that means we lose a lot of water to agriculture, 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.919 and agriculture is kind of leaky, you could put it 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.680 that way. Um. And the fact that we try to 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.200 grow crops everywhere and use a bunch of the freshwater 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:13.960 creates this kind of vicious cycle that exacerbates droughts or 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.560 at the very least, UM makes our reliance on climate 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:25.160 to not be droughty really really, um really important. Yes, 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:27.920 I just put a lot of words together and their 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.720 sense in there somewhere it makes total sense. Like, just 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:32.520 go back and listen to that last sense a few 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:36.680 times everybody. They'll finally come through. Uh. It is serious business, though, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.520 and very sad and devastating. Between fifty and a hundred 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.359 thousand people uh died in two thousand eleven in East 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.000 Africa with their drought, and right here in the US 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.240 we have suffered through uh some pretty rough drought here 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.880 in the last fifty years, um. And two thousand twelve 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.679 they said it was the worst conditions in fifty years. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.960 And corn production. Uh, you put a dent in corn production, 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.960 that's gonna put a debt in the world markets. Well, yeah, 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.159 it's a big deal. America runs on corn in the 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.080 worldun con donuts, even dunking donuts have corn in them. 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.280 The world to a certain degree runs on America's corn too, Yep, 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.120 you know what I mean. Yeah, And when um something 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.480 like corn, as we'll see, agriculture gets hit by drought obviously, 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.160 and when it gets hit by drought, because of the 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.520 globalized marketplace that we live in today, when food prices 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.480 go up, some of the poorer countries get priced out 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.120 of the market and they see things like food riots 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.480 and starvation and all sorts of bad stuff. So droughts 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.680 have like terrible effects. It's a snowball effect. And it 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.119 seems like I don't I don't know if it's getting 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.240 worse and if it is getting worse worse, if it's 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.960 anthropogenic or whatever, But there, okay. Texas. In two thousand 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:52.200 and eleven, Texas had the driest year since, which happened 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.720 to be the year it started recording this kind of stuff, 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.120 so it has it's the driest year on record for Texas. 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.560 Two third California had the driest to your own record 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:07.880 thanks to the ridiculously resilient ridge UM, and Australia went 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.360 through what's called the Millennium drought from two thousand nine, 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:15.040 they had a terrible drought. They actually, like some places 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.680 like Melbourne actually um figured out how to live in 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.920 drought conditions to survive and actually keep going pretty well. 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.280 And a lot of people are studying what Melbourne did 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.240 because they did it so well. That's because Australians are 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:32.520 resourceful and smart people, very resourceful, you know, but not 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:38.160 smart and smart. Okay, I wasn't saying anything. I'm just kidding, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.600 rubbing my eye. I got distracted. So uh well, we 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.040 even here in Georgia, we had a pretty wicked drought. 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:47.840 Remember two or three years ago. Do you remember the 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.600 governor like lead a prayer circle praying for rain and 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:54.319 it rained? Did it rain? It did rain? And uh 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.800 I don't remember that part now it rained, and there 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.000 was a lot of hullabaloo because they were like, well 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.560 he led the prayer circle on the day where they 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:06.559 call it for like, did it ring? They were praying 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:08.120 because that would be kind of cool, that would be 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.680 kind of cool. I don't think that's what happened though, um, 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.480 but I do remember that. Yeah, man, there's nothing wrong 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:15.280 with that. Pray for rain, do your rain dance. There 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:19.319 was talk of war between Georgia and Tennessee, and Tennessee 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:23.520 said we have guns. Yeah, And Georgia said, we have guns. 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.720 We have guns too, yeah, And there's a tense standoff, 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:28.920 and we left and went to New York City, where 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:33.760 there are no guns. We had something on the books already. Uh. 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.360 So let's talk to the basics of drought. UM. Drought 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:42.400 is obviously when it doesn't rain enough to sustain uh, 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.360 the ecosystem like it should. It's basically you're losing water 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:50.640 through evaporation, which is when water vaporizes or transporation, when 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.160 water moves, you know, through the soil and through the 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.600 plants and then leaves, and it's not so useful to us, right, 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.720 So you're losing water faster faster than it's being replenished. Yeah, 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.160 that is a drought. And again this is this is 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.480 all viewed through the lens of humanity. Like water isn't 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.440 lost when it goes through the soil. It is to 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.280 us until we get it out of an awkwifer that's 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:18.920 being replenished. Um. But it's not necessarily lost unless you 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.840 really look at it through the human lens. Uh. And 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.959 there are many many factors that go into whether or 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.479 not a drought occurs and how long it lasts. UM. 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:35.480 Here are a few immediate causes. One is high pressure zones. UM. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:37.880 Sinking air means you get a high pressure zone, which 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.920 means you have clear skies and warmer temperatures. And if 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:46.640 that stalls over a region, then UM more water is 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.440 going to evaporate, so that is gonna exacerbate the problem. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:54.560 That's like the ridiculously resilient ridge over California. UM. From 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.640 I think two, it was just this high pressure zone 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.000 that just said I'm sticking around here for a while. 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.000 And not only was it did it lead to like 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.240 high temperatures and low humidity because it's a high pressure zone. UM, 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:14.480 it also blocked tropical cyclones that normally are brought to 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.080 California by the westerlies. It just shot him up toward 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.760 the Arctic or down towards Mexico and California for two 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.360 different reasons, didn't get precipitation, and it's still in a 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.400 pickle as a result. Well, usually when you have a 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.880 prolonged drought, you can point to a number of factors, 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:39.480 like the ironically a perfect storm that causes no storm. 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.880 Another reason is UM air pollution. UH, there's a decade 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.360 long study completed I think in two thousand thirteen UM 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.480 from the University of Maryland h go terps UH and 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.040 they found that air air particulate, which UH is pollution 0:11:55.160 --> 0:12:01.480 dusts at sulfates UM produces more UH intense storms and 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.240 wet areas, or it leads to more intense storms and 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:08.920 wet areas and reduces rain and drier areas. So basically 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:14.040 just again exacerbates whatever is normally going on there. It 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.439 creates weather extremes, creates weather extremes. That's a great way 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:24.520 to say it. That's weird though, because so particulate matter. Yeah, 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:26.960 I'm trying to figure this out, so the they don't know, 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:31.160 the mechanism is uncertain, so there is no answer. If 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.760 that was your question, I'm abandoning figuring it out. Then UH. 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.840 And then here in the southeast one causes wind blowing 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.280 inward from the ocean is usually good thing because that 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.720 brings in from the Atlantic on the eastern seaboard, brings 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.720 in warm, humid temperatures and UH in the summertime. And 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.719 if they shift or weaken, then they're going to bring 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.960 in less moisture and less rainfall. And I think that 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:58.640 is what happened was a wind shift, and uh, whenever 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:00.160 it was we had our drought, wind was it was, 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:04.800 It may have been something like that around then. Yeah, 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:09.000 I mean it was fairly severe. Um. I just remember 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.120 all the lakes were way down and they I don't 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.800 think we got to the point where they were had 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:19.760 forced rationing, but they were advising everyone and asking everyone 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.800 to be better Stewart's It was a big deal. Everybody 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.920 was really nervous. I think the lake where Atlantic gets 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.120 his fresh art was down like twelve feet or something 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:35.200 like that. There was serious stuff. Um did you you 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:40.959 talked about like like changes in um in different areas 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:46.000 from did you did you mention Lno? Do you remember 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.520 that Chris Farley when he was El Nino back in 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.080 the nineties. It's like, I am el Nino, which means 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.240 the Nino in Spanish, so you know what that is. 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.640 I sort of remember that. There's a documentary on about 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.439 him now, which I'm eager to see. I haven't checked that. 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.360 I forgot about that. I want to see that as well. Um, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:10.520 so El Nino is actually um named for little baby Jesus. 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.800 Did you know that? I did not know that. Yeah, 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.560 back in the sixteen hundred Spanish fishermen um off the 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:21.280 coast of Mexico. UM named it El Nino because it 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.520 was this weird arrival of really warm water in December 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.920 in the winter months. They're like, oh, well, obviously it's 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.520 the christ Child, so they named it El Nino. And 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:36.720 that is when there's warmer than average water temperatures in 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:41.840 the tropics around like basically off the coast of Mexico, right, 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:47.200 and those warm the air and create wetter than average 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.880 conditions in some parts of the US and other parts 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.320 of the world, and drier than average conditions in the 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.320 other parts. And then there's the reverse of that, La Nina. 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.320 That's right, and that's colder than average temperatures of those 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.560 places that normally get wetter than normal and drier than 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.640 normal are flip flopped. But either way you get extreme 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.960 weather events like floods and droughts from this. And they 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:18.120 aren't exactly certain what creates this, just that they're pretty 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.080 sure it's natural. Yeah, well, actually they do have a 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:25.960 decent idea. UM. In two thousand three, something happened, which 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.280 the same thing happened in the nineteen fifties when we 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.520 suffered a pretty bad drought in the US. Uh, there 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.240 were there are two ocean cycles that basically flip flopped, 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:40.640 the Pacific Decadal oscillation and the Atlantic multi decadal oscillation. 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.080 And these things flip back and forth basically over time, 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.280 and they cause either more rain or less rain. And 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:50.560 the p d O is what causes the shift in 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.920 those surface ocean temperatures. So what what causes the shift 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.960 the Pacific decatal oscillation? Okay, so but what caused these 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.680 things to flip flop? Well, they just flip flop periodically 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.400 over over time. Basically. Um, I don't buy that though, 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:09.560 Like something makes those things flip flop. Well, yeah, maybe so, 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.600 I don't know. I mean, that's what I want to answers. 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:13.920 Some people probably say that's just the cycle of nature. 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.160 I guess, so that's a cop out. But they say 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.400 that every twenty to thirty years, Uh, this is gonna happen. 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:25.120 And when you combine them with with other factors, is 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.640 it basically gives everything a boost? Is and that's what 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.960 creates an Yeah, that's what they think. It's more like 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.560 it works in concert with El Nino and Lennia. So 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.920 these things have happened at the same time, which is 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.480 the reason California is in such a droute right now. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:43.160 So you have the warrn p d O plus El 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.080 Nino means it's gonna be wetter and cooler. Uh p 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:51.880 d O plus Lninia equals dryer and uh laninia is 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.360 influenced by the trade winds basically blowing on top of 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:56.760 the water. I think you already said that. It just 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.560 like circulates that water and the deep water comes up 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.840 to the purpose. Yes, chili, yeah, from chili or it's 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:10.320 chili water, chili water. So um, chuck. There's different categories 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:15.040 or people loved categorize stuff, right and um, there's actually 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:19.639 different categories of the categories for droughts. A little bit 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.199 of a brain buster, but um, you can kind of 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:27.000 subdivide the categories for droughts into um, geographical or seasonal 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:32.200 descriptions and then descriptions of drought severity. Right. So with 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.399 the geographical or seasonal description, it's kind of like, here's 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.680 an area, and this is the kind of drought conditions 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:43.000 you can expect. So there is a permanent drout, which 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.080 is basically what you think of with the desert. It's 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:49.280 a place that gets a minimal amount of precipitation and 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:54.359 it never catches up to the amount of evaporation or 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.200 Transporation's right, So that's just it's just always dry there, 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.399 permanent drought. It's an arid, climb air climate. Uh. And 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.680 then next you have seasonal drought, which is like a 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:09.800 drought comes dry conditions come on a predictable um calendar. Yeah, 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.879 like the dry season of the wet season in the country. Uh. 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:18.400 Those two are pretty standard. Um, no big surprises there. 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.639 But the next couple, Um, you almost said no big 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.400 whoop again? Almost did you saw that? My mouth went 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:31.040 Unpredictable drought is when there are irregular dry spells where 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.800 it's usually humid or rainy. Um. And then invisible drought. 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:36.720 I had never heard of that. I think that's fascinating. 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.719 That's when it is raining and you think, how can 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.239 we be in a drought because it's raining. It just 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.240 means it's it's too hot probably and it's not raining 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.919 enough because too much evaporation and transporations going on. So 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.639 it's invisible to the naked eye. It's like being skinny 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.240 fat to where you like you're the thin on the outside, 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.520 but your liver's got a ton of fat. All over it. Oh, 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.080 I thought you're gonna talk about the people that have 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.239 like really thin faces but from the neck and they 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:04.320 have weight. No, I hate those people. Oh, chuck, you're 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.880 going to get some mail for that. No, I hate 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:09.560 those people. I'm jealous of those people because I have 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:11.879 a big, fat face. Like, there's no picture I can take. 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.320 I could show my legs or my arms, and people say, 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:18.640 what a thin guy. You know, I think you look great, 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.080 but everything from my nose to my waist gives me away. 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:22.760 I'm gonna do that. I canna start posting pictures of 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.159 my legs in my arms like Danny DeVito, he always 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:28.320 does the troll foot that still have a nice, small, 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.959 tiny butt too. We've all noticed. I'm gonna take pictures 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.880 of that. It's the talk of the office. Um, everyone's 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.960 pictures of yourself. Everyone's body is fine. I'm not body shaming, 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.359 all right, that's good. What I'm saying is I'm jealous 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.800 of people with thin faces. All So, we got we 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.639 got one category down, which describes like a region in area, 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.639 although invisible drought doesn't really fit into that. But what 0:19:53.760 --> 0:20:00.440 als okay? Um the next group of categories. Um man, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.640 I sound like we're we're using an overhead projector this 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:08.160 is this dry, it's appropriately dry for the drought episode. Well, 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:09.760 you have to go through these, you know, it's part 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.120 of it. Okay, So the other these these categories make 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.280 sense to me. They described like the severity of a drought, right, 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:18.800 and you can pretty much go from one to the 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.720 other and it makes sense. So like a meteorological drought, 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:26.920 it basically says that you know, this week, this this 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.639 time last year, we had about an inch and a 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.880 half more rain than we got this year so far, 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:41.400 no big whoop. Basically, my brother in law also named Josh, 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.760 would notice this kind of thing because he's a little 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.000 bit of a weather bug. Yeah, I like weather bugs. Okay, 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.720 well you would like Josh, and he's one of the 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.200 few things, a few people besides like maybe a meteorologist 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:54.960 who would notice this, which is why it's called the 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.640 meteorological drought. That's right, Like you would have to be 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.119 really paying attention to even notice that. That's right. Okay, 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:05.879 that's stage one. Yes, Stage two is an agricultural drought, 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.520 and that is when you're talking about crops and agriculture 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.399 is going to be one of the first industries are 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.639 parts of the world affected by drought obviously, so this 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.880 is when farmers are starting to notice. You might hear 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.520 a news blurb or two if there had been drought 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.520 in the news, but it still hasn't. Like you're not 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:26.919 walking around the streets talking about it yet. No, just 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.240 farmers and Josh are speaking to one another about the drought. 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:34.000 That's right, what's next, Josh, the hydrological drought. This is 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:37.680 when like we start to notice, and that's when you're like, hey, man, 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:40.120 I went to my lake house this weekend and it's 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:44.520 all ugly. Yeah, like play red muddy junk everywhere. I 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:50.080 can see the submerged buildings. The underwater cities are visible, 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:52.400 like in Lakelander. You know there's a town down there? 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.080 Oh yeah, yeah, you didn't know that. I don't think 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:58.400 so there's a town down there. When Lake Lanar gets 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:00.320 low enough you can see it. You can see a 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:04.040 Gulf seventies six sign sticking up out of the lake. Yeah, 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:07.920 like the old like ball one that's orange with the blue. 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.400 What was the town like some part of Buford or something. 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.280 I guess. Interesting, you didn't know there's a town and 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:19.320 under lake Lin hear I didn't. Didn't that Creepsville about creepy? 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:21.719 It's creepy. I think it's cool. I mean if there 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.800 were people living down there with gills, that was creepy. 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.359 So the point is, Chuck, that we notice the people 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.080 with gills. Notice everybody starts to notice the hydrological drought. 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.000 It's like the talk of town. Um. And then the 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.960 next step is where it gets really really bad socioeconomic drought. 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.639 This is when the government tends to step in and say, 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:48.959 you who have odd number um addresses can water on 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:53.040 Tuesday's Thursdays. Those of you with even addresses can water 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:56.560 on Monday Wednesdays. Or it can flip flop. It depends 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:01.920 on your local government. True, isn't that set in stone? Right? 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.280 But the point is is, Um, there are now restrictions 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:07.920 taking place. There are now things being enforced. Their people 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.679 are are being asked to cut back, and and the 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.000 reason why is because there you're we're seeing a real 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:16.600 effect like through the economy. Yeah, like Robert points out, 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:19.000 something I've never really thought of. A tourism of course, 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.560 is gonna dry up with the water in some places. 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:28.879 UH food shortages, UM shipping maybe affected, UH imports and exports, 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:32.560 and in less developed parts of the world, that can 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:34.959 be really bad. Here in the US it may just 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.560 mean socioeconomic annoyance, but in other parts of the world 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:42.680 that could lead to political unrest and armed conflict and 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:45.959 panic and disease and like really really bad stuff. Right, 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:49.320 So that's socioeconomic drought. And uh, let's take a break 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:52.639 and let's talk a little bit about other effects of 0:23:52.720 --> 0:24:10.280 drought in the dust bowl right after this, So, Chuck, 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:14.240