Much of what you think you know about droughts is probably wrong.
Unless you study hydrological systems, you may think that droughts are caused by a lack of rain. Water stops falling from the sky, and as a result the land dries up. Crops fail, fires kindle more easily, and people starve.
While this is true of many water scarcities, climate change will most likely bring a different kind of aridity to the Wabash River Basin that occupies most of Indiana. In a few decades, Hoosiers will likely experience rain-filled droughts.
This prediction is based on the work performed by Indiana University (IU) Professor Chen Zhu and his post-doctoral colleague Dr. Jennifer Dierauer. Their recent paper relies on a hydrological modeling tool that uses climate change predictions to better understand Indiana’s future water supply. Dierauer and Zhu found that despite rainfall amounts similar to current levels, Indiana’s soil won’t have the same moisture content.
