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Escalating Drought in the U.S.


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  • 1 month later...
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  • 2 months later...

Little bit of drought relief the past 14 days.

 

Latest map

 

attachicon.gifdrmon0402.gif

Why does the map you posted here and this map look different??  Examples:  The map you posted shows a larger percentage of dry areas in the east, and almost no drought conditions in MT than the map I posted.  Do they not use the same standards??  I know they are 4 days apart, but that shouldn't lead to such disparity.

 

palmer.gif

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Why does the map you posted here and this map look different??  Examples:  The map you posted shows a larger percentage of dry areas in the east, and much more severe drought conditions in MT, WY, and TX than the map I posted.  Do they not use the same standards??  I know they are 4 days apart, but that shouldn't lead to such disparity.

 

 

The one you posted is more recent by 4 days...there's been a lot of storminess over the plains recently, so that could be part of the difference. I'm also not sure if the two maps have slightly different criteria for measuring drought. Either way, this recent pattern has been a good drought buster.

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The one you posted is more recent by 4 days...there's been a lot of storminess over the plains recently, so that could be part of the difference. I'm also not sure if the two maps have slightly different criteria for measuring drought. Either way, this recent pattern has been a good drought buster.

 

 

Good points.  And yeah, the scales may be slightly different.  NCDC has a good summary of different ways to measure drought, including references if you want to know the exact formulas:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/prelim/drought/palmer.html

 

Also, the UNL drought monitor has a bunch of different products using different techniques (and brief descriptions) to quantify the drought:

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/current.html

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The question of quantifying drought is an interesting one.  What matters more - rainfall the last month, 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months?  Long-term precip is arguably more important for water supply, while short-term precip might be more important for your lawn or agriculture. 

 

Also, how do you account for other factors, such as sunlight or temperature?  Clearly a month with average precipitation (say from 2 or 3 convective events) but much above average temperatures and nearly full sunshine every day is very different from a month with average precip that was cool, cloudy and drizzly throughout.  That's why you have to take soil moisture, river flow, crop conditions, etc into account.  :)

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