NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information

September 12, 2018

NOAA Satellite and Information Service

Doug KluckRegional Climate Services Director

Kansas City, MO

Drought Decision Support

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Mission and Goal

•Mission: To lessen societal vulnerability to drought

by promoting planning and the adoption of

appropriate risk management techniques (NDMC)

•To improve the nation’s capacity to manage drought-

related risks by providing the best available

information and tools to assess the potential

impacts of drought, and to prepare for and mitigate

the effects of drought (NIDIS)

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Avoid at all costs

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Considerations

• The Who, What, Where, When– Sector, Region, Time-Scale, Indicator Specific

• Monitoring Tools vs Planning Tools– Which to use, which ones, how?

• Drought Capacity– States, Tribes, Communities, International, Sectors

• Comprehensive (holistic) Planning vs Reactive Planning– Reactive Planning: setting triggers based on a particular index can be an issue

– Vulnerability assessment (drought tournaments, community input, scenario planning)

– Capacity building and/or education

Monitoring Tools

Planning Tools

Outreach

Remote Sensing

Historical Drought

Data

Drought Impact

Archive

NDMC

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Regional Drought Early Warning

Systems (DEWS)

Working with communities and existing networks to

build capacity for better decision making for

drought planning and mitigation.

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Resources

https://drought.unl.edu/droughtplanning/PlanningHome.aspx

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10-Step Drought Planning Program

1. Appoint a Drought Task Force

2. State the Purpose and Objectives of the Drought Plan

3. Seek Stakeholder Participation and Resolve Conflict

4. Inventory Resources and Identify Groups at Risk

5. Develop Organizational Structure and Prepare

Drought Plan

6. Integrate Science and Policy, Close Institutional Gaps

7. Publicize the Proposed Plan, Solicit Reaction

8. Implement the Plan

9. Develop Education Programs

10.Post-Drought Evaluation

https://drought.unl.edu/archive/Documents/NDMC/Planning/10StepProcess.pdf

droughtmonitor.unl.edu

The United States

Drought Monitor

➢ Hosted by the NDMC as part of a 3-way partnership with NOAA and USDA

➢ Over 12.5 million hits a year

➢ Used in several USDA programs

➢ Used by the IRS for tax deferrals

➢ Many others !

U.S. Drought Monitor Change

Maps

At various time-scales of:1 week4 weeks8 weeks

12 weeks24 weeks

1 yearCalendar year

Water year

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Many regional maps are available

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Indices: SPI/PDSI

Soil Moisture

Streamflow and

Reservoirs

Remote Sensing

Expert Local Input and Impacts

Precipitation and Snow

Most of the information analyzed each week falls into one of these categories.

Authors now use roughly 40-50 unique indicators while creating the U.S. Drought Monitor map, but not all areas are represented equally by all pieces of data.

Historical Drought

The Drought Risk Atlas will answer the following questions for users through the data and products available within the tool

How does the current drought compare historically?

How often does a drought of this magnitude happen (frequency)?

When was the last time a drought like this happened?

What is the likelihood of the drought continuing?

What did the spatial footprint of the last drought look like?

Drought Risk Atlas

droughtatlas.unl.edu

Multiple options within the user interface allows for the selection of historical drought information

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Documenting the Impact of

Drought is Important

droughtreporter.unl.edu

Handbook of Drought

Indicators and Indices

https://library.wmo.int/pmb_ged/wmo_1173_en.pdf

http://www.droughtmanagement.info/handbook-drought-indicators-and-indices/

Handbook of Drought Indicators and Indices. WMO/GWP Integrated Drought Management Programme(IDMP). 2016. WMO-No. 1173. WMO, Geneva, Switzerland and GWP, Stockholm, Sweden.

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Contacts:Doug.kluck@noaa.gov

•National Drought Mitigation Center

(https://drought.unl.edu/Home.aspx)–Director: Mark Svoboda - MSVOBODA2@unl.edu

–Brian Fuchs - bfuchs2@unl.edu

–Kelly Smith - ksmith2@unl.edu

•National Integrated Drought Information System (drought.gov)–Elizabeth Ossowski - Elizabeth.Ossowski@noaa.gov

–Britt Parker - britt.parker@noaa.gov

–Molly Woloszyn - molly.woloszyn@noaa.gov

•Case studies: –Climate Resilience Toolkit - https://toolkit.climate.gov/

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NCEI Climate Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NOAANCEIclimate

NCEI Ocean & Geophysics Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NOAANCEIoceangeo

NCEI Climate Twitter (@NOAANCEIclimate): http://www.twitter.com/NOAANCEIclimate

NCEI Ocean & Geophysics Twitter (@NOAANCEIocngeo): http://www.twitter.com/NOAANCEIocngeo

www.ncei.noaa.gov

www.climate.gov

U.S. Drought MonitorIntegrates KeyDrought Indicators:• Palmer Drought Index• SPI• SPEI• KBDI• Modeled Soil Moisture

• NLDAS• 7-14 Day Avg.

Streamflow• Precipitation

Anomalies• AHPS Precipitation • Other data which are

available

Growing Season:• Crop Moisture Index• Sat. Veg. Health Index• VegDRI/ESI/etc.• Soil Moisture• Mesonets• State/Regional data

In The West:• SWSI• Reservoir levels• Snowpack (SNOTEL)• SWE

• Streamflow

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State of Nebraska Governor’s Drought Info