The paper analyses the desertification phenomena in Oltenia, which have been more intense after 1990. Significant references are also made to the overall aspect for the entire country. The droughty periods have different meteorological characteristics compared to the last century such as: their association with intense heat waves, intensity and important areas of extension. These were caused by stable and persistent anticyclonic regimes which affected most part of the European continent. The paper is a part of series of extended studies on climate variability in Oltenia (Bogdan and Niculescu, 1999, Bogdan and Marinică, 2007, Marinică and Marinică, 2010; Marinică, 2006, 2009). The paper is useful to students, master graduates and to all specialists in climatology. The desertification phenomenon is obvious during the long periods of droughts within the southern and south-western part of Oltenia on the sandy soils with weak structure, the deflation leading to the movement of sand dunes.
In the studied interval, droughts manifested intensively and highly damaged the entire social life. Their frequency has grown, and during the warm season has been associated with increasingly intense heat waves, which increased their effects. Fires of forest vegetation occurred on pastures and fields. The agricultural production highly decreased, and the financial efforts necessary to the economic recovery became higher and higher. The intense droughts in the period when plants had maximum needs of water were extremely destructive, and the damages have been substantial.