Thursday, August 5, 2021

Drought Monitor, Crop Moisture, and Drought Severity Indices

 The usual University of Nebraska-Lincoln weekly drought map is at the bottom of this post but first a couple presentations we've found more helpful for understanding ag commodities.

First up, from NOAA, the Crop Moisture Index (orange is bad):

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/regional_monitoring/cmi.gif

And the Palmer Drought Severity Index:

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/regional_monitoring/palmer.gif

Discussion

And from UNL:

Drought Monitor for conus

The drought that had been creeping into Texas has almost disappeared. Colorado and New Mexico also got some relief that week. Much more troublesome for food production is drought expanding and intensifying in Iowa and Minnesota. Here's the side by side comparison presentation.

And the discussion:

This Week's Drought Summary 
Abundant monsoonal precipitation again spread from the Southwest as far as eastern Nevada, southern Idaho, southern and western Wyoming, and western Colorado. Totals exceeding an inch were common, and 2 to 4 inches doused some of the higher elevations, especially across the central Rockies and Intermountain West. Most other areas of dryness and drought recorded at least light precipitation, but totals were not enough to significantly improve dryness and drought from the Plains eastward....