Browse news articles

The Southeast is currently experiencing a "Flash Drought." Drought conditions increased throughout the month of September due to extreme dryness and warmer than average temperatures for most of the region. The exceptions include the eastern Carolinas and southern Florida, which were impacted by Hurricane Dorian.

In its simplest form, flash drought is the rapid onset of drought. In contrast with conventional drought, which is mainly driven by lack of precipitation, flash drought usually includes abnormally high temperatures, winds, and/or incoming radiation that leads to abnormally high evapotranspiration (ET) rates. The prediction of flash droughts on sub-seasonal timescales is of critical importance for impact assessment, disaster mitigation, and loss prevention.

What would you say if I told you that right now, the most drought-stricken state in the United States is Alaska? Or what if I said it was the northwestern part of Washington State? Well, despite the notion that these two areas are not known for drought, they’re each experiencing one. The fact is, drought doesn’t just happen in California and the arid west; in 2016 water-rich New England was in a drought as was Hawaii, and in 2015 it was Puerto Rico.

The University of Texas-Arlington, Texas Water Development Board, and NIDIS hosted an interactive workshop on September 12-13 in Arlington, Texas, to learn how NOAA forecasts have been applied in decision-support tools for water management in different states and discuss what steps are needed to integrate NOAA forecasts in reservoir operations and water resources management in the Southern Great Plains (Texas and Oklahoma). 

Drought is a pretty complicated climate extreme to define. Most commonly, it is defined as a precipitation deficit—much less precipitation falls than what is typically expected for a given time period. But drought is not equally distributed across the U.S. Just as there are climatologically wetter areas and drier areas across the country, the same could be said about the occurrence, frequency, and severity of drought.

Over 30 participants from 18 different organizations gathered at the East-West Center on Tuesday July 23 for the NOAA NIDIS workshop on Drought Recovery in Hawai‘i. The day was broken up into four sessions, which included a mixture of oral presentations and facilitated discussions in breakout groups. The morning session featured “talk story” presentations from local resource managers and practitioners, telling stories about how drought has impacted them from different perspectives, including water resources, ranching, ecosystems, wildfire, and traditional Hawaiian knowledge.

The 2nd National Drought Forum, held July 30-31 in Washington DC, convened high-level drought experts and decision-makers from drought-impacted regions and economic sectors of the country, along with the private sector, research institutions, and officials across all levels of government to discuss priority actions around drought early warning, long-term resilience, and the billions of dollars lost to drought in the U.S. each year.

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) has published the second edition of the M60 manual, Drought Preparedness and Response, to help water managers facing water shortages. The manual illustrates how to employ tried-and-true strategies and tactics of drought mitigation, as well as introducing new tools and methods.

The National Drought and Public Health Summit, held June 17‒19, 2019 in Atlanta, brought together a diverse set of local, state, federal, tribal, non-profit, and academic stakeholders for a discussion around the linkages between droughts and human health. The goal was to discuss ways to properly prepare our nation’s public health agencies and organizations for the health hazards associated with drought, which in turn can reduce negative outcomes and save lives.

As of June 11, 2019, Arizona is finally free of short-term drought impacts.* Arizona was previously in the midst of their longest duration of drought since the start of the United States Drought Monitor (USDM) in 2000. Beginning on August 18, 2009, some part of Arizona was in drought, as classified by the USDM (D1-D4), for 512 consecutive weeks. This state record for short-term drought, which lasted nearly 10 years (approximately 9 years and 10 months), finally came to an end with the release of the USDM map on June 11, 2019.