Overview
Flash droughts are an emerging type of drought that has newly emerged as climate change intensifies hydrologic extremes. Within days to weeks, they can rapidly deplete water resources due to a combination of precipitation deficits and high temperatures that increase evapotranspiration.
Executive Summary
HIGHLIGHTS :
- Flash droughts are already occurring in South Korea, with a marked rise in heatwave-induced flash droughts during summer. Their impact goes beyond agriculture, affecting municipal water supplies as well.
- However, the conventional drought definition emphasizes a slow-onset, long-duration phenomenon. This leaves flash droughts largely invisible within existing early warning, monitoring, and response systems. As a result, South Korea's current monthly drought statistics and warning systems often fail to detect them, even when real-world damage is occurring during officially ‘drought-free’ periods.
- Due to their ability to rapidly exhaust water resources, flash droughts pose a major threat to sustainable water management. Addressing them requires a new operational definition. We also need high-temperature-based indices and integration of weekly forecasts into drought monitoring, statistics, and response frameworks.
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