Nearly half of Africa's farmland suffers from periodic and often catastrophic drought.
Afghanistan is in its 4th year of a catastrophic drought and 22nd year of unremitting war.
This was likely due to a sequence of catastrophic drought, whole-of-catchment scale bushfires and widespread ash-induced fish kills.
In 1877, one of the periodical catastrophic droughts began in the Northeast.
And the scenery is too green, the soil too red, for there to be catastrophic drought.
Most of the latter half of the 6th century was marked by a catastrophic drought along the coast, contributing to the otherwise mysterious demise of the Moche.
Scientists are trying to calculate the long-term impact of the catastrophic drought of 1987.
Referring to the 1623 harvest after the nearly catastrophic drought, Bradford wrote:
Similarly, some cold regions might benefit, or suffer less, from global warming while others would suffer catastrophic drought or flooding from rising sea levels.
The timing could not have been worse for Afghan farmers, many of whom have already left their land because of a catastrophic three-year drought.