What is Droughts in the United States?
'''Droughts in the United States''' is similar to [[drought]] around other parts of the world. Below-normal [[precipitation]] leads to drought. That's caused by an above average persistence of [[high pressure area|high pressure]] over a dry area. Drought in the [[United States]] occurs during climate cycles, such as the [[North Atlantic oscillation]], Atlantic multidecadal oscillation and the [[El Niño-Southern Oscillation]]. These determine what areas are more likely to have development of drought and when drought develops. Droughts are periodic. They alternate with [[flood]]s over a series of years. The worst droughts in U.S. history happened in the 1930s and 1950s. The U.S. drought in the 1930s was called the [[Dust Bowl]]. The [[1936 North American heat wave]] was part of the Dust Bowl. Other major droughts in the 20th and 21st centuries happened in the United States in the 1960s,<ref>{{cite report|title=Plight of Farmers in State Deepening in Worst Drought|publisher=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/01/archives/plight-of-farmers-in-state-deepening-in-worst-drought.html|access-date=July 15, 2018}}</ref> 1980, 1983,<ref>{{cite report|title=Drought Disaster Declared by U.S.|publisher=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/03/us/drought-disaster-declared-by-us.html|access-date=July 15, 2018}}</ref> 1988-90,<ref>{{cite web|title=Billion Dollar Disasters|publisher=Live Science|url=https://www.livescience.com/114-billion-dollar-disasters-chronology-events.html|access-date=July 15, 2018}}</ref> 2002 and 2012-14. The costliest drought in United States history was the 1988-90 drought. The drought caused just over $60 billion in damage. During the drought, there were also [[heat wave]]s that took the lives of 4,800-17,000 people in the U.S. This drought was also the costliest [[natural disaster]] in U.S. history before [[Hurricane Katrina]]. Droughts can affect anywhere within the United States. But the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]], Great Plains and [[Western United States]] a