Climate Program Office (CPO)

Purpose and ScopeThe report, Facing Future Droughts: Lessons from the Southeast’s 2023 Fall Flash Drought, was developed to improve the monitoring, communication, and response to drought in the Southeastern United States, with a specific focus on flash drought. The 2019 flash drought exposed critical gaps in early warning and monitoring systems, sparking conversations that continued

In March 2020, Moderate to Severe Drought (D1-D2) intensified rapidly to Exceptional Drought (D4) along the lower Rio Grande in Texas, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Over the next five years, drought severity waxed and waned across the Southern Plains, shifting location and extent but never leaving the region. Drought touched the lives of nearly every resident of the region.NOAA's

On December 15–19, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) is hosting its annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year, the meeting will focus on the theme, “Where Science Connects Us.” NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and partners are excited to present on NIDIS-supported drought research and applications at AGU. This includes a review of climate

The Mississippi River provides drinking water for millions of Americans, supports hundreds of fish and bird species, and is one of the world’s most important commercial waterways, with an extensive transportation network moving food and other goods across the nation and the world. When drought occurs in the Mississippi River Basin, it can have devastating impacts. Actionable, user-

NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) has awarded $1.95 million in funding for projects to support tribal drought resilience as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. This investment will help tribal nations address current and future drought risk on tribal lands across the Western U.S. while informing decision-making and strengthening tribal drought

Today, the NOAA Climate Program Office’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (MAPP) program jointly announced $4.9 million in funding for NOAA labs and research partners to improve drought monitoring and prediction in the American West. This research combines $3.1 million in funding from NIDIS and $1.8 million from the

Study finds steepest drops in areas of the Northern Hemisphere reliant on snow for water.Scientific data from ground observations, satellites, and climate models have not agreed on whether climate change is consistently chipping away at the snowpacks that accumulate in high-elevation mountains and provide water when they melt in spring. This complicates efforts to manage the water scarcity that

NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) has announced approximately $2 million in funding for projects to support tribal drought resilience as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. This investment will help tribal nations address current and future drought risk on tribal lands across the Western U.S. while informing decision-making and strengthening tribal

NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) has announced a total annual award of $6.2 million to support 12 new, innovative, and impactful projects that will improve our nation’s resilience at a critical time in the fight against the drought crisis. The projects will focus on ecological drought and building tribal drought resilience. NIDIS is funding seven new 2-year

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

Drought represents a globally relevant natural disaster linked to adverse health. But while evidence has shown agricultural communities to be particularly susceptible to drought, there is a limited understanding of how drought may impact occupational stress in farmers. To address this problem, NIDIS co-funded a study to examine the relationship between drought conditions and measures of job-

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