View current drought conditions for Flathead County, Montana, and explore impacts on Water Supply, Public Health, and Agriculture.| Drought.gov
Since early 2020, the Southwest United States has suffered record low precipitation and near-record high temperatures, gripping the region with an unyielding, unprecedented, and costly drought. This exceptional drought—marked by massive water shortages, destructive wildfires, emergency declarations, and the first ever water delivery shortfall among the states sharing the Colorado River—punctuates a two-decade warm and dry period that has baked the Southwest. A newly released report from ...| Drought.gov
The NOAA Climate Program Office’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program organizes the Drought Task Force IV (DTF IV) to coordinate the activities of researchers supported through the MAPP/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Fiscal Year 2020 grant competition, "Characterizing and Anticipating U.S. Droughts’ Complex Interactions." The goal of this research initiative is to advance the understanding of drought causes and predictability, as well...| Drought.gov
Flash drought intensifies rapidly due to changes in precipitation, temperature, wind, and radiation. These changes in the weather increase evapotranspiration and lower soil moisture. Flash droughts can cause extensive damage to agriculture, economies, and ecosystems if they are not predicted and discovered early.| Drought.gov
Short- and long-term droughts differ in the timescales over which they occur, their impacts, and their monitoring.| Drought.gov
Although wildfire is part of the natural ecosystem cycle over the western U.S., its intensity and frequency has been increasing at an alarming rate in recent decades. A new study shows that climate change is the main driver of this increase in fire weather in the western United States. And even though wetter and cooler conditions could offer brief respites, more intense and frequent wildfires and aridification in the western states will continue with rising temperatures.| Drought.gov
Drought monitoring at the national, regional, and local levels is an integral part of drought early warning, planning, and mitigation.| Drought.gov
Drought is generally defined as “a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time (usually a season or more), resulting in a water shortage.” As the different definitions at right illustrate, though, drought can be difficult to define—so difficult, in fact, that in the early 1980s researchers found more than 150 published definitions of drought, reflecting differences in regions, needs, and approaches. Some drought definitions are conceptual—an idea or concept—which...| Drought.gov