The Climate Prediction Center produces a four-month Palmer Drought Severity Index outlook as tabular data for each climate division. The Palmer index assesses total moisture by using temperature and precipitation to compute water supply and demand and soil moisture. It is considered most relevant for non-irrigated cropland and primarily reflects long-term drought.

The Palmer drought model features the capability to compute the amount of precipitation that would be required to end a drought or reduce (ameliorate) a drought's severity. Maps of the precipitation needed, and the probability of receiving it based on historical records, are available from the National Climatic Data Center.

One- and two-week forecasts of soil moisture anomalies, (that is, the difference between seasonal normal and current), based on the Global Forecast System (GFS) model are available. The monthly and seasonal forecasts of soil moisture anomalies produced by the Constructed Analog on Soil Moisture (CAS) model are also available.

The Experimental Surface Water Monitor, from the University of Washington, provides analyses of soil moisture, snow water equivalent and other water-related variables.

Experimental Soil Moisture Forecasts, up to six months, are available at Princeton University's Drought Monitoring and Forecasting project web site. These forecasts are based on a statistical design called the Extended Stream-flow Prediction (ESP) and a dynamic seasonal model called the Climate Forecast System (CFS).

NOAA and NASA are collaborating on the Land Data Assimilation Systems (LDAS) experimental drought monitor to provide soil-moisture maps derived from near real-time estimates.