U. S. Drought Monitor

Richard Heim, Liz Love-Brotak, National Drought Mitigation Center

This is a real-time map of current drought conditions in the US, which can be zoomed to the state level, with access to many more resources at that level. Some of these include the National Drought Regional Summaries and animations of historical data.

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Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

This is a comprehensive source of drought data - both real-time and historical. Educators need to determine how best to integrate into their teaching. Educators can use these data to address the many facets of the impact of drought on Earth.
The US Drought Monitor is a compilation of statistics and maps compiled by University of Nebraska, Lincoln, using data from various government sources. There are also links to the state climatologist and regional climate center. Comments from expert scientist: The Drought Monitor is a comprehensive index of current and historical drought across the United States, bringing significant information value to decision makers, from the level of individual farmer to congressperson. The resource offers precipitation and temperature projections both in the short (1-2 year) and long term (30+ years). The Drought Monitor uses the most recent and accurate scientific data, explains the limitations of the indices it relies upon, always substantiates and references material, and provides contact information for the author.