NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) has launched the redesigned U.S. Drought Portal (www.drought.gov) to better serve stakeholders, decision makers, the media, and the public. The new website features updated content and new interactive architecture designed to provide actionable, shareable information and easy-to-understand graphics describing current

2020 USDM Weekly Maps Animation This animation displays the weekly drought maps published by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) during 2020. Drought in 2020 began with the Northwest, Four Corners, and Texas in drought and ended with intense drought from the Plains to the West Coast, with a large area in the Southwest and West Texas in Exceptional Drought (D4), the highest level. Florida went

Since the start of the 21st century, California and Nevada have suffered extreme wildland fires and droughts that have caused devastating impacts to ecosystems and society. A common feature of these events has been very high evaporative demand—the “thirst” of the atmosphere—which has largely been driven by increased air temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change. According to new