PART VI — PRECIPITATION AND REGIONAL WEATHER PHENOMENA 



The Prediction of Drought 



The National Weather Service is- 

 sues monthly general forecasts of 

 large-scale patterns of temperature 

 and rainfall, and from such forecasts 

 the likelihood of onset of drought dur- 

 ing the month concerned may be in- 



ferred in general terms. At the present 

 time, no specific techniques for pre- 

 dicting drought exist. It is possible 

 that a study of time-lag relationships 

 for large areas could provide useful 

 guidance. It is possible, too, that run- 

 ning analyses of the conditions within 

 the Pacific section of the equatorial 



belt and related studies of the re- 

 sponses of the mid-latitude atmos- 

 phere would provide useful prediction 

 aids. Finally, the results of the above- 

 mentioned studies are likely to be 

 considerably sharpened through nu- 

 merical experiments with dynamical 

 simulation models. 



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