Free For All – United States Drought Monitor
For those of you who follow us on Twitter and/or LinkedIn, you might have seen us post an animated map showing current drought conditions across the United States each Thursday. Well now it is time to spill the beans on where I get these maps. Each Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) publishes an updated drought map of the United States here. The USDM was established in 1999 as a joint effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Included with the handy maps I post on LinkedIn/Twitter is a wealth of additional information, including:
This is an animation I put together weekly and post to our Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. It shows last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor map and then this week’s in a never ending loop.
- Statistics on the area in each type of drought zone,
- A drought change map,
- KMZs, shapefiles and a WMS of this drought data for GIS users,
- And even a tool to see if you qualify for agricultural drought relief.
Until my next edition of the Free For All, happy hunting for free geospatial goodies!
Brock Adam McCarty
Map Wizard
(720) 470-7988
brock@apollomapping.com
