Think Flash Floods Are Bad? Buckle Up for Flash Droughts

Published: March 10, 2020, 10:12 a.m.

In late spring of 2012, climactic chaos descended upon the Midwest and Great Plains in the midst of the growing season. A drought is supposed to unfold on a timeline of seasons to years, but in the two weeks between June 12 and 26, the High Plains went from what a monitoring group called “abnormally dry” to “severe drought.