The United States has a long history of experience with drought. Weather statistics dating back to 1866 tell us the time, location, duration, and severity of past droughts, but little about the next one, except that there will be a next one. The cyclical nature of droughts in the Great Plains has influenced the development of the region. In wet periods, settlers and farmers moved in, only to be driven out, many of them, by the next wave of dry years. That's what happened in the late 19th century, the 1980's, and in between.