About the U.S. Drought Portal
Advancing drought science and preparedness across the nation
The U.S. Drought Portal
The U.S. Drought Portal (www.drought.gov) is the U.S. government’s authoritative drought information website. It provides a one-stop shop for data, decision-support products, resources, and information on drought—from drought monitoring and prediction, to planning and preparedness, to applied research.
First launched in 2008 as an online clearinghouse for drought information and science, it has evolved over time to address a growing public demand for actionable, reliable, and shareable information. By providing a centralized location for reliable, timely, and accessible drought information, Drought.gov offers an essential drought and climate service, improving the nation’s capacity to proactively manage drought-related risks and strengthen communities’ resilience to drought.
The U.S. Drought Portal is managed by NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) in partnership with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The content builds on NIDIS interagency partnerships and leverages federal, tribal, state, and local government data and decision-support products.
Drought.gov is a resource for everyone who is impacted by drought, including policymakers and decision makers at all levels of government, researchers, the private sector, the media, and the public. For more information, please contact drought.portal@noaa.gov.
Key Features
2021 Drought Portal Redesign
In January 2021, following two years of user input, NIDIS launched a completely redesigned U.S. Drought Portal to better serve stakeholders, decision makers, the media, and the public. The new website, developed in collaboration with NCEI, features updated content and new interactive architecture designed to provide actionable, shareable information and easy-to-understand graphics describing current drought conditions and forecasts by city, county, state, zip code, and at watershed to global scales.
The Drought Portal also aggregates and presents drought impact data for economic sectors such as agriculture, energy, water utilities, and recreation using interactive maps and data that don’t exist anywhere else, demonstrating the cascading impacts of drought.
We’d love to hear your feedback! Let us know how Drought.gov is serving you, how you use drought-related information in decision making, and/or what other resources you would like to see available by emailing us at drought.portal@noaa.gov or taking this website satisfaction survey.
Explore interactive data and maps by topic, including current conditions, outlooks and forecasts, impacts, and historical conditions going back up to 2,000 years. This section also includes data, maps, and tools for soil moisture, wildfire, water supply, snow drought, and more.
Explore the cascading impacts of drought across economic sectors, such as agriculture, public health, water utilities, wildfire management, and tourism & recreation.
Explore current conditions, key indicators of drought, outlooks, forecasts, and historical drought conditions at different geographic scales, from the city and county level to across the globe. This section also contains curated resources for each of NIDIS’ eight regional Drought Early Warning Systems.
Go “back to the basics,” and learn about flash drought, snow drought, ecological drought, and national initiatives like the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network and the NIDIS Drought and Wildland Fire Nexus. This section also includes information on ongoing and published NIDIS research designed to help build resilience to drought across the U.S.
View the latest drought-related news, upcoming events, and recordings and summaries of past webinars. This section also includes timely updates on local drought conditions, outlooks, and impacts from NIDIS and its partners—including local drought alert emails and regional drought status updates.
Learn about the National Integrated Drought Information System, its partners, and the eight regional Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS) across the U.S.