Why can dry winds and drought cause leaf scorch and shoot dieback?

Dry winds and drought induce leaf scorch and shoot dieback primarily because they create an environmental imbalance where the rate of water loss from the plant exceeds the rate of water absorption by the roots.1

Plants lose water to the atmosphere through a process called transpiration, which occurs mainly through the stomata of the leaves. Under conditions of drought and hot, dry winds, the atmospheric demand for moisture increases significantly, causing the plant to release water vapor faster than its root system can replenish it from the soil.21

When this water deficit occurs, the plant experiences dehydration, leading to the "burning" or scorch of leaf tissue—typically appearing as dead areas along the margins or between the veins—and the eventual dieback of shoots. This phenomenon is a noninfectious plant disease caused by adverse environmental conditions rather than a pathogen.31