Updated on August 1, 2007  

Background
NDMC Contacts
Using the Drought Impact Reporter to Find Contacts
Current Conditions/Background Information
Other Information
Ideas for News Stories/Investigative Reports

Background
Drought is a complex natural hazard. Unlike other natural disasters, drought has no easily discernible beginning or end, and its impacts are often difficult to determine. In the 1990s, the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated that drought costs the United States $6-8 billion dollars annually—and this figure is probably conservative. As the United States continues to look for ways to deal with this costly phenomenon, it is increasingly clear that we need to both expand our understanding of drought and disseminate this information to those affected by it. This section provides a guide to expertise within the National Drought Mitigation Center, suggestions for other contacts, links to background information and information on current conditions, and suggestions for news stories and investigative reports.

NDMC Contacts
For insights on drought planning, management, and policy issues in the United States and internationally, contact Mike Hayes, (402) 472–4271, mhayes2@unl.edu, the director of the NDMC. Mike has worked with a variety of governments and organizations to develop drought plans. He is an expert on “drought triggers”—that is, which drought indices are best for a given situation, and on drought impacts. He is involved in research on drought impacts, risk, and vulnerability. Mike is a PhD meteorologist at the NDMC and the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

For drought index or forecast interpretation, contact Mark Svoboda, (402) 472–8238, msvoboda2@unl.edu. Mark is a climatologist with an M.A. in geography, specializing in remote sensing and GIS (geographic information systems). He stays current on drought-related weather reports and forecasts and is an expert in the technical side of drought monitoring.

For information on local-level drought planning and water management issues, contact Cody Knutson, (402) 472–6718, cknutson1@unl.edu. Cody is a PhD water resources scientist at the NDMC and the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He specializes in helping individuals and communities prepare for and respond to drought.

For drought monitoring and drought related impacts, contact Brian Fuchs, (402) 472-6775, bfuchs2@unl.edu . Brian is a climatologist and stays current on the drought conditions for the United States as well as impacts related to drought in any particular area.

For general information, please call our main number: (402) 472–6707.

Using the Drought Impact Reporter to Find Contacts
The NDMC’s Drought Impact Reporter, which collects, quantifies, and maps reported drought impacts for the United States, is a good source for additional contacts. The Drought Impact Reporter’s database includes summaries of current news articles on drought-related topics as well as links to the original articles. Many of the articles provide the names of persons affected by drought, including government officials and employees, representatives of various associations and organizations, representatives of relief organizations, agricultural producers, and business owners. You can search the database by topic (agriculture, water/energy, fire, social, environment, other), date, or location (state or county).

Current Conditions/Background Information
The U.S. Drought Monitor provides a weekly overview of where drought is emerging, lingering, subsiding, or forecast in the United States. The map is based on a multi-index classification system; check out Drought Monitor: State-of-the-Art Blend of Science and Subjectivity for a more detailed explanation of the map and this system. Users can compare the current week’s map with the previous week’s map using the link directly under the current map. Past Drought Monitor maps (back to August 1999) are archived on this site, and users can also view 6- and 12-week animations of the map. The Monitor is produced jointly by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.

The Drought Impact Reporter is an interactive tool developed by the NDMC to collect, quantify, and map reported drought impacts for the United States. The Drought Impact Reporter was created in response to the need for a national drought impact database. Information for the impact report database comes from a variety of sources, including on-line drought-related news stories and scientific publications, members of the public who visit the website and submit a drought-related impact, members of the media, and members of government agencies.

The North American Drought Monitor (NA-DM) is a cooperative effort between drought experts in Canada, Mexico and the United States to monitor drought across the continent on an ongoing basis.

For an overview of drought, check out the following articles from this website:

Understanding and Defining Drought discusses the concept and definition of drought.

Drought Indices is an analysis of 8 drought indices used around the world.

Predicting Drought outlines the causes of drought and how they are used in prediction.

Drought and Climate Change discusses the Greenhouse effect and climate change.

Understanding ENSO and Forecasting Drought looks at the relationship between El Niño and drought.

What is Climatology? provides a brief explanation of climate.

The Impacts of Drought discusses the environmental, social, and economic impacts that may occur as a result of drought.

The Status of State Drought Plans discusses the leading role that states have taken in planning for drought. It includes a map that shows which states currently have drought plans.

The Monitoring Drought section of this website includes Standardized Precipitation Index maps generated here at the NDMC and links to other major drought monitoring tools.

Other Information
The NDMC maintains a Directory of Drought Planners, which lists contact information for persons involved in drought planning at state, regional, and federal levels in the United States. This directory includes contact information for regional climate centers and state climatologists.

Ideas for News Stories/Investigative Reports
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, how prepared are we for the next big drought? What lessons can be learned that apply to drought?

Implications of the coming winter season on drought conditions?

During times of drought, we often see news items containing water-saving tips for citizens. Does your community provide any incentives or conduct any programs to encourage water conservation, either during drought or as an ongoing effort? If so, how effective have these actions been?

In a growing number of cities/regions, water supplies cannot keep up with increasing populations, economic growth, and urban expansion. Is your area experiencing any conflicts related to water supplies and growth, and if so, have there been any attempts (successful or not) to resolve the problems?

Many communities allow the use of graywater for some purposes, and some people have suggested that its uses should be expanded. What is the status of graywater in your region?

For most areas, the climate record will reveal the presence of multi-year droughts and a “drought of record” that predates the written records of the area. Yet some officials rely exclusively on climate data from written records (which in many cases do not go back much more than a century) in planning for drought. This tendency, combined with changing demographics (urban expansion, increasing population), often results in static drought plans that are ineffective for multi-year droughts and unable to account for changing social conditions. Is this the situation in your area?

In many parts of the country, consecutive years of drought have severely affected agricultural producers. Have agricultural producers in your area developed or adopted coping strategies to deal with extended drought?