Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Climate science

Historical drought trends revisited

Nature volume 491, pages 338–339 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

A new assessment of drought trends over the past 60 years finds little evidence of an expansion of the area affected by droughts, contradicting several previous estimates. See Letter p.435

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Severe drought.

N. HARNIK/AP

Figure 2: Drought drivers.

References

  1. Rupp, D. E. et al. in Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 From a Climate Perspective (eds Peterson, T. C., Stott, P. A. & Herring, S.) Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 93, 1052–1054 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  2. www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/drought/2012/7.

  3. http://today.agrilife.org/2012/03/21/updated-2011-texas-agricultural-drought-losses-total-7-62-billion.

  4. www.economist.com/node/21559381.

  5. Seneviratne, S. I. et al. in Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Field, C. B. et al.) 109–230 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Sheffield, J., Wood, E. F. & Roderick, M. L. Nature 491, 435–438 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Trenberth, K. E. et al. in Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Solomon, S. et al.) 235–336 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Solomon, S. et al. 'Technical Summary' in Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Solomon, S. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Dai, A. Wiley Interdisc. Rev. Clim. Change 2, 45–65 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Dai, A. Nature Clim. Change http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE1633 (2012).

  11. van der Schrier, G., Jones, P. D. & Briffa, K. R. J. Geophys. Res. 116, D03106 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Burke, E. J. J. Hydrometeorol. 12, 1378–1394 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Mueller, B. & Seneviratne, S. I. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 12398–12403 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Meinshausen, M. et al. Nature 458, 1158–1162 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sonia I. Seneviratne is at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.,

    Sonia I. Seneviratne

Authors
  1. Sonia I. Seneviratne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonia I. Seneviratne.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Seneviratne, S. Historical drought trends revisited. Nature 491, 338–339 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/491338a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/491338a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene