Download or read book Drought written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EO Library: Drought: The Creeping Disaster Portions reprinted courtesy of the NOAA National Weather Service Office of Meteorology While much of the weather that we experience is brief and short-lived, drought is a more gradual phenomenon, slowly taking hold of an area and tightening its grip with time. In severe cases, drought can last for many years, and can have devastating effects on agriculture and water supplies. Nationwide losses from the U.S. drought of 1988 exceeded $40 billion, exceeding the.