The 1986 Southeast drought in historical perspective ( US)

Abstract

The agricultural and hydrological perspectives of this drought are examined via a climatological time series. Late 19th and 20th century climate data from the most severely affected areas indicate that from an agricultural perspective the beginning and middle of the 1986 growing season was by far the worst on record. From a hydrological perspective the drought was not of sufficient duration to stand out as such an extreme anomaly. The 1986 drought is part of a change in recent years from the wet weather of the 1960s and much of the 1970s. -from Authors