The meteorological definition of the word ‘drought’ is quite straightforward; a period during which less than normal rainfall is experienced. But those bare words cover a multitude of circumstances and hardships often suffered by the Earth’s poorest communities when they are exposed it. Droughts impact many aspects of life. In agriculture, crops may wither as the soil dries out, livestock may die either through lack of water or insufficient food, streams, rivers and lakes may cease to provide for local populations and groundwater supplies to wells may fail. When the vegetation becomes tinder dry, wildfires are a risk and deforestation can make not only the effects of a drought more serious, but can actually contribute to it as well. In parts of Texas, they are seeing rainfall reduced by a quarter and this is thought to be directly attributable to the removal of tree cover.