Southwest Drought Briefing: September 19, 2023

Welcome to the Southwest Drought Briefing 

Speaker: Emile Elias | Director, USDA Southwest Climate Hub

• Learn more about the Southwest Drought Learning Network. 
• View past webinar recordings at drought.gov/webinars.
• Introducing the speakers: 
  • Curtis Riganti, National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • Marina Skumanich, National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network, NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) 

Current Conditions and Drought Outlook 

Speaker: Curtis Riganti | National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

• The North American Monsoon has been much drier than normal in most of Arizona and New Mexico, which led to widespread expansion/degradation of drought conditions in these states, including both short- and long-term drought. In addition to low precipitation, temperatures have been hotter-than-normal across much of Arizona and New Mexico. This is especially evident  in the 3-month Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI).
• Long-term dryness has lingered in southern Nevada, southeast California, and south-central Utah. However, rainfall from Tropical Cyclone Hilary was locally heavy, especially for this time of year, and some improvements in drought/abnormal dryness occurred in the last few weeks. This shrank the lingering long-term abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1) in these regions.
• Some of southeast Utah slipped into abnormal dryness (D0) or moderate drought (D1) with the slow North American Monsoon.
• Most of the rest of the region (including the rest of Utah, Nevada, and California) is free of drought.
• Most of Hawaii has been drier than normal recently, with U.S. Drought Monitor designations ranging from abnormal dryness (D0) to severe drought (D2) across the islands. Some of the worst conditions exist across the western half of Maui, where severe drought is ongoing.

National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network

Speaker: Marina Skumanich | National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network | NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)

• The National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network is a NIDIS-led, multi-institutional effort to integrate soil moisture data from networks around the country and build user-friendly national maps and tools to support natural resource decision-making. The objective is to provide better early warning and management support for drought, flooding, water resource management, agriculture, ecosystems management, and other applications.
• The Southwest has a number of basin- or state-level soil moisture monitoring networks, with more states in the process of building networks, which will mean better local data coverage over time. There are also key national systems, such as the SNOTEL and SCAN networks, that provide important information.
• Various Southwestern states have developed state-level (or regional) soil moisture maps to use in decision-making, including (but not limited to):
  • California Water Watch 
  • Colorado Drought Update
  • NRCS Nevada and Sierra Basin Maps
  • Utah Climate Center
  • Utah-focused NRCS soil moisture maps (through the NRCS water portal)
  • Wyoming Climate Office
• There are several national maps/tools to support use of soil moisture monitoring data.  Many can be found on drought.gov. Two key sources are: 
  • Drought,gov Soil Moisture Product Dashboard, which presents a series of products together to facilitate comparison.
  • Soil Moisture Data, Maps, and Tools, which provides a listing of key soil moisture resources.

Questions & Answers

Speakers: Curtis Riganti | National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Marina Skumanich | National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network | NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)