Drought is recurring phenomenon, that is difficult to define, spatially diffuse, and with impacts that cost billions of dollars each year. During the summer of 2002, more than one-third of the contiguous U.S. was in severe or extreme drought, which was as extensive as any of the major droughts since the 1950s. Among the impacts of U.S. drought during the last 5-7 years have been large and intense wildfires, vegetation and wildlife mortality, loss of wildlife habitat, drastically reduced reservoir levels on major western rivers, water emergencies in rural communities, and economic losses in the agricultural and tourism sectors.

This paper will give an overview of recent drought impacts in the U.S., with a special emphasis on drought impacts and issues in the Southwest (which has had the most rapid rates of population growth in the nation during the past decade). The paper will briefly examine water supply issues, conflicts over water rights, conflicting priorities between the need for endangered species habitat and the need for secure water supplies for Southwest communities, the economic impacts of drought in the Southwest, and efforts to mitigate the effects of drought in the Southwest.