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Document

Best Practices to Communicate Drought Outlooks to Agricultural Producers

Document Author

Cadence Oliver, NOAA Lapenta Intern

Document File

Best Practices to Communicate Drought Outlooks to Agricultural Producers (PDF) (5.24 MB)

Document Date

September 26, 2025

Document Type

Reports

Document Description

Focusing on the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s (CPC) long-term Seasonal Drought Outlook, this William M. Lapenta NOAA student internship project aimed to address the complexities of communicating uncertainty and provide recommendations on improving communications to best support agricultural producers. This project focused on the process of communicating outlooks to the agricultural sector through the lens of agricultural intermediaries, such as agricultural extension staff and state climatologists. Findings suggest that improving transparency, trust, language, as well as providing more localized information, could yield positive impacts in clearly communicating uncertainty in outlooks, aiding the agricultural sector in drought mitigation and preparation.

Semi-structured interviews took place with eight intermediary participants across the Southeast and Midwest. Participants ranged from state climatologists to livestock specialists to climate resilience specialists and were located in South Dakota, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Transcriptions from the interviews underwent qualitative analysis, and the results of the analysis were used to make recommendations.

This NOAA Lapenta internship project was conducted by Cadence Oliver in summer 2025, with mentorship by NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).