ESRI Drought Tracker

ESRI, National Drought Mitigation Center

Using US Drought Monitor data and its classification system, this interactive tool tracks drought in the continental US by county, from 2000 to the present.

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Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Educator might want to walk students through an example location and look at the graphs, their axes, and what the trend lines indicate. Students can compare and contrast regions in the US for drought events over time. Data is updated every week, which allows students to make predictions using current weather conditions.
A series of maps and graphs that illustrate drought conditions in the US (by county) between 2000 and the present month. Updated weekly. A timescale below each image shows significant drought events clearly, over the given time interval. Comments from expert scientist: Scientific strengths: - High resolution map with time series (2000-2018) and different levels of drought severity - The Drought Classification is very helpful in understanding the map key and data sources
Data is displayed in color-coded (by drought intensity) line graphs showing yearly trends as well as the most current 8-week period. Additionally, a slider allows user to zero in on specific dates between 2000 and present. "Learn More" button takes user to the US Drought Monitor website for information about drought monitor classification scheme and the data behind the tracker.