Facts About the U.S. Drought Monitor

No surprise, drought persists across the western U.S. and is intensifying in some areas. No geographic area is immune. The U.S. Drought Monitor provides a weekly map of drought assessment.

The map identifies areas of drought and labels them by intensity. It categorizes the entire country into one of six levels of drought: None and Abnormally Dry (D0), Moderate (D1), Severe (D2), Extreme (D3), and Exceptional (D4). Federal, state, and local entities make decisions based on the Drought Monitor.

When you think about drought, you probably think about water or lack of it. Precipitation plays a significant role in creating the Drought Monitor. Still, the map’s author considers numerous indicators, including drought impacts and local insight from over 450 expert observers around the country. Indicators for assessing drought include precipitation, streamflow, reservoir levels, temperature, and evaporative demand, soil moisture, and vegetation health. The monitor depicts both short and long‐term drought conditions. Data is compiled for multiple timeframes from information received from experts, media reports, and private citizens. The final map represents a summary of the story being told by all the pieces of data.

The map authors are trained climatologists or meteorologists from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and USDA. Their job is to reconcile the data into a single assessment.
The Drought Monitor is a “snapshot” of conditions observed during the most recent week, building off the previous week’s map. The map is released on Thursdays based on data for the week that ended the preceding Tuesday.

State climatologists and other trained observers in the drought monitoring network relay information from numerous sources to the map author each week. That can include information that you contribute.

To contribute your observations:
1. Talk to your state climatologist – Find the current list on the American Association of State Climatologists website.
2. Email – droughtmonitor@unl.edu
3. Become a CoCoRaHS observer – Submit drought reports along with daily precipitation observations to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network.
4. Submit Condition Monitoring Observer Reports (CMOR) – go.unl.edu/CMOR.