Current Drought
The United States Drought Monitor is unique in that it blends numeric measures of drought and experts' best judgment into a single map every week. It started in 1999 as a federal, state, and academic partnership, growing out of a Western Governors' Association initiative to provide timely and understandable scientific information on water supply and drought for policy makers.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced by a rotating group of authors from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the
National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC).
It incorporates a review from a group of 250 climatologists, meteorologists, hydrologists, extension agents, and others across the nation.
Each week the author revises the previous map based on rain, snow and other events, and observers' reports of how drought is affecting crops, wildlife and other indicators.
Authors balance conflicting data and reports to come up with a new map that is released every Thursday morning.
Visit the U.S. Drought Monitor for the current drought conditions.
Whenever the U.S. Drought Monitor reports drought conditions of D-2 (severe drought) or worse for a region, the National Weather Service will issue a drought information statement that describes local conditions and forecasts. These are available through the website of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).
The Drought Impact Reporter is a national archive of news stories and reports on the effects of drought. The reports are updated on a daily basis and can be searched by location, date, or type of impact. The Reporter includes a feature for anyone to report an impact that is occurring locally.
