April 2008

Breaking News

Drought Category Percent Area Now Available by County

In response to popular demand, we are now making Excel spreadsheets available each week showing the percent area in each category of drought for every county in the United States. 

The weekly statistics for the entire United States, the contiguous 48 states, for individual states, and for counties can now be downloaded through the GIS Data archive page on the U.S. Drought Monitor site at: http://drought.unl.edu/dm/dmshps_archive.htm.

Mark Svoboda, NDMC climatologist and Drought Monitor author, said, “We felt it was time to bite the bullet and give folks what they have been asking for. As it is a reality that the DM is being used more and more by various federal entities at the county level, it seems only right to provide the public with fair and equal access to this data that are being used in decision-making at many levels.”

In addition to writing or calling the contact information listed on the Drought Monitor site, anyone can weigh in on drought conditions by going to the Drought Impact Reporter at http://droughtreporter.unl.edu and clicking on “Add An Impact.”

NDMC Expands K-12 Curriculum Development

The National Drought Mitigation Center is involved in many efforts to develop and test drought and climate-related activities and curricula for K-12 students. Recent venues include the earth wellness festival, which is attended by all the fifth-graders in Lincoln, and is sponsored by the Lower Platte South Natural Resource District (LPSNRD), the National Drought Mitigation Center, Lancaster County Extension, Lincoln Public Schools, the Lincoln-Lancaster Health Department, and the City of Lincoln Recycling and Wastewater Divisions; and Nature Nights, sponsored by LPSNRD and the University of Nebraska-Extension. Activities are staffed by volunteers, environmental educators, teachers, and organization and agency employees throughout Lincoln, Lancaster County, and Southeast Nebraska.

	Water Banking Fifth graders from Trinity Lutheran School in Lincoln, Nebraska, established water use priorities during the “Water Banking” game, balancing urban, rural, and environmental interests. First they are asked how they would allocate 24 inches of water among 10 different interests in a normal year, and then they are asked to allocate 12 inches of water among 10 interests in a drought year.
Meteoropoly Fifth graders from Humann Elementary School learn about natural hazards, including drought, in a round of “Meteoropoly” at the 2008 earth wellness festival, held in March at Southeast Community College in Lincoln, Nebraska. Students learned history and safety information related to droughts, floods, tornados, and hurricanes.
	Measuring Snowpack and Monitoring Drought Donna Woudenberg, left, Meghan Sittler, and other NDMC staff worked with students of all ages during the Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium, March 29 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The activity helped students make the connection between snowfall in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado, the level of water in Lake McConaughy in western Nebrasaka, and Lincoln’s water supply, which comes from an aquifer underneath the Platte River. Donna adapted it from Discovering Drought, a Project Wet International publication developed in cooperation with several groups in Arizona.

Discover the Waters of Nebraska
Meghan Sittler and Donna Woudenberg from the NDMC and Brooke Levy, Project Learning Tree/Project WET Coordinator, UNL Extension, are working with Project WET to create a booklet for children/youth ages eight through 12 called Discover the Waters of Nebraska. One of their first steps will be to hold practitioner input sessions so that water educators and other interested people can provide input on which concepts seem most important. If you’d like to be involved, please contact Meghan Sittler by calling 402-472-2712 or emailing msittler2@unl.edu.