Drought: Historical Time Series (1895 – 2012; July) for the Contiguous US

Sep 18, 2012 (Last modified Sep 19, 2012)
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Description:
This time-enabled layer shows areas of moderate to extreme drought for the lower 48 states for July (Mid-peak growing season) for the years 1895 through 2012. Drought status is represented by the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for each climate division in the United States. Only instances where drought exceeded near-normal values (PDSI < -2) were included in this dataset. 

 The PDSI is an index of the relative dryness or wetness effecting water sensitive economies, indicating prolonged and abnormal moisture deficiency or excess. Inputs to its calculation include weekly precipitation total, average temperature, division constants (water capacity of the soil, etc.), and previous history of the index. 

 The PDSI is an important climatological tool for evaluating the scope, severity, and frequency of prolonged periods of abnormally dry or wet weather. It can be used to help delineate disaster areas and indicate the availability of irrigation water supplies, reservoir levels, range conditions, amount of stock water, and potential intensity of forest fires. 

 Data obtained from: http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cirs/
Data Provided By:
  National Climate Data Center, Conservation Biology Institute
Content date:
not specified
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Dataset Originator/Creator: National Climate Data Center
Data Processing: Conservation Biology Institute
Spatial Resolution:
climate division
Contact Organization:
 Conservation Biology Institute
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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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Time Enabled
Tags:
pdsi, time series, historical, history, climate, drought
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Conservation Biology Institute

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