The demographic and cultural Collapse of the ancient lowland Maya civilization in the ninth century A.D. has long been of fascination to both scholars and the general public. A large number of hypotheses has been offered to explain this event. Evidence derived from several independent lines of investigation during the 1990s indicates the time of the Maya Collapse was one in which severe drought conditions prevailed over much of the lowlands. Drought is now considered a potential primary causal factor for the Collapse. This paper cites some of the evidence for the presence of drought conditions at the time of the Collapse and then considers the degree to which a drought-based explanation for the Collapse is compatible with what is currently known about the Collapse's occurrence. There are problematic aspects to the temporal and spatial development of the Collapse that suggest that the Terminal Classic-period drought did not constitute a single, overwhelming blow that rendered collapse inevitable. It is suggested, instead, that culture-historical events and ecological factors interplayed with the Terminal Classic-period drought in such a way as to render the Collapse possible.