Drought Resources
Drought Resources
DROUGHT RESOURCES & ASSISTANCE
National Drought Resources
The Bureau of Reclamation's Drought Response Program supports a proactive approach to drought by providing assistance to water managers to: develop and update comprehensive drought plans, and implement projects that will build long-term resiliency to drought.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers resources regarding the health implications of drought, along with a drought communication toolkit and e-learning materials.
Knowing which hazards could harm the things you care about is the first step in protecting them. This portal can help you understand what climate-related hazards you face, now and in the future. Check how climate conditions in your location are projected to change over the next several decades.
The NDMC works with states and tribal governments as well as national governments around the world to develop better drought risk management strategies related to monitoring, early warning, and planning.
The National Integrated Heat Health Information System is an integrated system that builds understanding of the problem of extreme heat, defines demand for climate services that enhance societal resilience, develops science-based products and services from a sustained climate science research program, and improves understanding of the negative effects of extreme heat.
The main objectives of the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlooks are to improve information available to fire management decision makers. The outlook identifies areas by month for the next four months with above, below, and near normal significant fire potential.
The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit is a website designed to help people find and use tools, information, and subject matter expertise to build climate resilience. The Toolkit offers information from all across the U.S. federal government in one easy-to-use location.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is a weekly map of drought conditions across the U.S. and is the official record of drought for Federal drought relief claims.
This site by the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) aims to provide a one-stop shop for current, reliable, and useful information and resources related to drought. NIDIS was created to further coordinate and integrate drought research, building upon existing federal, tribal, state, and local partnerships in support of creating a national drought early warning information system.
The Farm Service Agency provides assistance for natural disaster losses, resulting from drought, flood, fire, freeze, tornadoes, pest infestation, and other calamities.
Regional Drought Resources
The mission of CLIMAS is to improve the region’s ability to respond sufficiently and appropriately to climatic events and climate changes, promoting participatory and iterative research involving scientists, decision makers, resource users, educators, and others who need more and better information about climate and its impacts.
The mission of this Center is to produce river, flood and water supply forecasts for the Colorado Basin and the Great Basin in support of saving lives and property and to enhance the regions’ environment and economy.
A satellite-based drought monitoring and assessment map to input and view surface greenness according to precipitation, cloud cover, evapotranspiration and other data affecting drought status.
Grass-Cast is an optional tool that managers can use to form a more educated guess about the upcoming spring & summer growing seasons. It can help inform the design of proactive drought management plans, trigger dates, stocking dates, and grazing rotations. Grass-Cast combines current weather data and seasonal climate outlooks with a well-trusted grassland model to predict total biomass (lbs/acre) for your local area, compared to its 36-year average.
The After Fire Toolkit may be used to find guidance for assessing and preventing potential damage due to post-fire flooding and related events. The website may be browsed to find information on the research, methods, and tools available for measuring and reducing risks associated with post-fire flooding, debris flows and sedimentation.
State Drought Resources
The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) manages over 800 species in a variety of habitats across a large landscape, and uses a wide range of tools to protect and enhance the long-term viability of these species. Arizona’s wildlife has faced a number of stressors in past years, including habitat loss and fragmentation, water diversion and groundwater overdraft, competition and disease risk from livestock, altered fire regimes and fire suppression, introduction of invasive species, and drought. Increased and prolonged drought can have a variety of effects on wildlife. Check out AGFD's Drought Management Actions Plan to learn more.
These Annual Reports cover drought conditions and preparedness activities that took place during the water years (October 1 - September 30), produced by the Arizona Drought Monitoring Technical Committee and published by ADWR.
Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) is a tool to help Arizonans learn about environmental hazards in the state that could impact their health, these include drought and heat stress illness. EPHT has gathered data from national and local sources in order to view both environmental and health outcome data in one easily accessible place.
Drought conditions in Arizona make the state especially vulnerable to wildland fires. Visit this website to find out how you can reduce your risk of property damage due to wildfires by learning tips on how to create defensible space and which trees and shrubs to plant to help protect your home.
The Interactive Drought Dashboard shows short-term drought conditions in Arizona from 2000 to present. Use this interactive tool to explore drought conditions for the entire period or for specific time frames; for the whole state or for a selected county.
The Strategic Vision provides a comprehensive water supply and demand analysis for Arizona, developed by ADWR in 2014. It creates framework for developing potential strategies to address projected imbalances and maximize their effectiveness in addressing address needs of Arizona water users.
This initiative continues the work published in the 2014 Strategic Vision for Water Supply Sustainability. It's comprised of two tracks: the first is focused on a stakeholder driven analysis of the 22 Planning Areas; the second is the Governor’s Water Augmentation Council, which investigate water conservation, augmentation and infrastructure improvements strategies for the State.
This page was created by ADWR to keep Arizonans informed regarding the long-term drought conditions on the Colorado River Basin and the looming water shortages for some water users in Arizona, including several solutions in the works to reduce shortage impacts across the state.
- Drought Emergency Declaration PCA 99006 (in effect since 1999)
- Drought Declaration Executive Order 2007-10 (in effect since 2007)
- History of Drought Declarations and Disaster Designations in Arizona
The NWS, a component of NOAA, provides weather, water, and climate data, forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy
The University of Arizona College of Agriculture & Life Sciences produced the following reserach:
Potential Regional Economic Impacts of Water Cutbacks to Irrigated Agriculture: This study presents results from two previous case studies (Bickel et al., 2019, 2020) that estimate the potential regional economic impacts of agricultural water supply cuts to two crop producing regions in Arizona: (1) Pinal County and (2) Graham and Greenlee counties.
Economic Effects of Declining Water Levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell: This study estimates the effects of changes in lake levels on recreation visits to Lake Powell and Lake Mead and the resulting economic effects of reduced visitor spending in nearby communities, including regional economic impacts. The study also estimates the changes in consumer surplus, or recreationist benefits.
This is the USDA Farm Service Agency webpage for Arizona, and it includes contact information for each of Arizona’s county offices and fact-sheets for the programs offered by the Agency, such as the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program and the Emergency Conservation Program.