Abstract
Large areas of the earth's surface experience occasional climatic fluctuations. Such fluctuations, integral to the weather system, often lead to drought or flood, and this influences crop production and commodity prices. Drought is a contributor to economic, social, and, on occasion, even political instability in both commercial and subsistence agricultural economics. Particularly affected are areas such as India, China, parts of Europe, and the American Great Plains which include the Canadian "Prairies". Because of its dominantly agricultural economy, and because of its location well within a zone of frequent drought, the Canadian Prairies section has been selected for study. Past studies on Canadian droughts put emphasis on drought patterns by using Thornthwaite moisture indices' but in so doing have expressed the effects rather than the causes of droughts. The objective of this paper is to examine the summer droughts in the Canadian Prairies by using synoptic climatological approach2• Recent studies by meteorologists and climatologists indicate the usefulness of synoptic climatology to analyze climatic problems. 3 However, their application to drought analysis is lackin
Recommended Citation
Dey, B.
(1979)
"Application of 700 Millibar Synotic Climatology to Drought Analysis,"
The Geographical Bulletin: Vol. 18:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/thegeographicalbulletin/vol18/iss1/4