It might feel like record-breaking droughts are announced constantly nowadays, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important to understand how droughts might affect you. If you live in a drier region, like a lot of the West Coast or Texas, then you’ve likely already seen the impacts of a drought on the landscape around you.
What you might not have considered, however, is exactly what costs might come along with increasing droughts. With large swathes of the country considered either “Extreme” or “Exceptional” droughts by the Federal Government, there isn’t a much better time to get a better grasp of what you can do to fight its impacts on your bottom line. To get more info, read below:
Food Costs
With over 225 million acres of crops in drought conditions, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that food conditions, yield, and quality can all be impacted. As droughts continue to affect crops, you can expect food costs to rise. With a lot of the current Drought’s severity in Texas, California, and the Mountain States you might see increases on beef, corn, and other staple goods in grocery stores near you.
Fire damage
When you think of droughts, it wouldn’t be surprising if you also thought of fires. In drought conditions, fires are more prevalent and at a much higher risk. With less precipitation, or water, and increased heat and dryness it is no wonder that fires are more common. Whether these fires impact wildlife, wilderness areas, or even your own neighborhood can drastically change the costs it has on your wallet.
While your greatest fear might be something like a fire that impacts your own personal possessions, it can be harder to track the costs associated with wilderness fires. Costs for fighting wildfires were already well over $1 billion almost a decade ago, and they’ve continued to rise since. As more of your money gets attributed to fighting wildfires, as well as repairing the damaged area, it means less that can be put toward services that can assist you.
Utilities
Droughts have two big elements – heat, and a lack of water. As your area starts to heat up, you can expect your utility costs to begin to rise. From electricity to water, prices have gone up during periods of drought. This can be even more prevalent if you live in an area with a large amount of hydropower. Droughts can push less developed power systems to the brink, charging a premium for electricity and even seeing caps implemented in some areas.
These are just a few of the ways that a drought might start to impact your wallet – and it’s safe to say this isn’t every possible cost increase. We’ll continue to monitor events, grants, and resources to provide information to help you fight these increasing costs.
