Web Sites Monitor Worsening Drought

By: Charles Bowen I don't know about your community, but in my part of the country, it has been a long, hot -- and very dry -- summer. Now, of course, every year we're accustomed to our local farmers singing the blues. It's always either "too wet" or "too dry," "too cold" or "too hot," and spring was either "too early" or "too late."

However, it's different this time around. This year, the only local entity not crying us a river is the water company. In newsrooms, we know that the summer weather story is moving from page 2 to page 1 when our academic skywatchers start using the D word.

Drought is not a term that our meteorologists generally use lightly. For one thing, it is actually a little difficult to pin down what a drought really is. No single definition works for all circumstances, it turns out. That is why people who study the lack of rain rely on multiple indices to determine and measure droughts.

And no single index appears to work in all cases. So it is fortunate for us curious laymen that a new online resource synthesizes multiple indices, outlooks, and news accounts. It represents a consensus of federal and academic scientists' view of the national drought situation. Called the Drought Monitor, the site lets you track the progress of weather conditions throughout the rain-starved country, offering detailed looks at rainfall around the United States. In addition, informative maps illustrate the creep of drought conditions across the nation over six- and 12-week periods.

To use this resource, visit the site at http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/index.html and click on the "Drought Monitor" link. Getting right down to business, the site displays a color-coded map of the United States showing the latest data on dryness, ranging from abnormally dry to exceptional drought. Icons below the illustration enable you to view animated maps for the past six- or 12-week periods, useful if you're tracking the progress of drought conditions in your specific region. Also coded into the map are letters to indicate the most severe impact of the drought, whether on agriculture, water supplies, fire damage or all three. The map is updated weekly and released Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST.

Scroll the page for more information. For example, below the map are detailed text summaries of the week's changes in the drought conditions in the West, the Plains and Midwest, the Gulf Coast, the Northeast and Southeast, and Alaska and Hawaii. And keep scrolling to reach the site's Looking Ahead section. Here the site provides a narrative forecast for the week ahead and outlook for rain in the hardest-hit areas.

Other considerations for using the U.S. Drought Monitor in your reporting and editing:

1. The Drought Monitor also provides valuable links to related sites elsewhere on the Web. For instance, for more information about the science or impacts of drought, the site refers you to the National Drought Mitigation Center at http://drought.unl.edu/. The resulting site has sections devoted to climatology, drought science, related publications, and networks of nationwide drought planners.

2. Both the Drought Monitor and the National Drought Mitigation Center are headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Other partners in the projects are the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Weather Service, and the National Water and Climate Center.

3. Use the site's "What's New" link at the bottom of any page for the latest additions to the site.

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