North American Drought Monitor (NADM) Dataset

The North American Drought Monitor (NADM) raster dataset is generated by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). This dataset is a gridded version of the North American Drought Monitor (NADM) produced by authors in Canada, Mexico and the United States, where for each 2.5 km grid cell the value is given by the current NADM drought classification for the region:

The drought category is encoded in the image as the following values:

  • NoData value = -1 = No drought or moisture
  • 0=Exceptionally dry
  • 1 = Moderate drought
  • 2 = severe drought
  • 3 = extreme drought
  • 4 = Abnormal drought

The North American Drought Monitor (NADM) is a collaborative project between drought experts in Canada, Mexico, and the United States to continuously monitor drought across the continent. The program was launched at a three-day workshop in late April 2002 as part of a larger effort to improve monitoring of climate extremes on the continent. The NADM (Lawrimore et al., 2002) is based on the highly successful United States Drought Monitor (USDM) and is therefore being developed to provide a comprehensive and ongoing comprehensive assessment of drought conditions in all three countries. Preface – Artificial Intelligence Tutorial

Since its inception in 1999, the United States Drought Monitor (Svoboda et al., 2002) has been highly successful in assessing and communicating drought conditions in the United States on a weekly basis. Like U.S. drought monitoring, North American drought monitoring blends science and art. There is no one “right” way to measure drought. Drought indices are used to detect and measure drought, but different indices measure drought in different ways and no one index is valid in all situations (Heim, 2002). Therefore, the drought monitoring concept (developed jointly by the National Weather Service, the National Drought Mitigation Center, and the USDA Joint Agricultural Meteorological Facility in the late 1990s) is a process that integrates multiple indices, prospects, and local impacts. Assessment that best represents current drought conditions. The end result of each drought monitor is a consensus among federal, state and academic scientists.

Drought monitoring has become an integral part of drought planning, preparedness and mitigation efforts at national, regional and local levels. Drought can occur in all parts of the continent and its effects can be devastating. Since 1980, severe droughts and heat waves in the United States alone have caused over $100 billion in damage, easily becoming one of the costliest weather-related disasters on the continent at that time (Lott and Ross, 2000).

But in today’s global economy, the costs and impacts of drought often transcend international borders. In 2002, drought persisted across much of the southwestern United States and a prolonged drought in Mexico sparked a dispute between the two countries over shared water rights. To the north, multi-year droughts north of the Rockies and west of the Great Plains extend into Canada’s agricultural prairies, dramatically affecting agricultural productivity in the two countries that provide most of the world’s food production.

Although all three countries have active climate and drought monitoring programs, until recently there has been limited cooperation and coordination among drought experts in each country. Past drought assessments have typically been conducted only at country borders because differences in resources and policy objectives, as well as countries’ approaches to monitoring drought, effectively hindered a comprehensive understanding of drought conditions across the continent. The NADM program aims to overcome these past limitations, with the goal of providing an operational assessment of drought across the continent later in 2003, when monthly DM operational maps and discussions will be made available to the public.

Key participants in the U.S. NADM program include NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, USDA, and the National Drought Mitigation Center. Key players in Canada and Mexico include Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Meteorological Service, and Mexico’s National Meteorological Service (SMN – Servicio Meteorologico Nacional).

Additional details can be found here, and information about this dataset can also be found on Climate Engine org.

Dataset details?
Space range North America
Spatial resolution 2.5 kilometers (0.025 degrees )
Time resolution Monthly
Time Span November 1, 2001 to present
Update frequency Updated monthly

Variables

Changeable Drought category (‘nadm’)
Unit Drought classification
Scale factor 1.0
Citation?
Heim, Jr., R. R., 2002. A review of Twentieth-Century drought indices used in the United States. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 83, 1149-1165.

Lawrimore, J., et al., 2002. Beginning a new era of drought monitoring across North America. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 83, 1191-1192.

Lott, N., and T. Ross, 2000. NCDC Technical Report 2000-02, A Climatology of Recent Extreme Weather and Climate Events. [Asheville, N.C.]: National Climatic Data Center.

Svoboda, M., et al., 2002. The Drought Monitor. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 83, 1181-1190.
Earth Engine snippet?
// Read in Image Collection and mosaic to single image
var nadm_ic = ee.ImageCollection('projects/climate-engine/nadm/monthly')
var nadm_i = nadm_ic.first()

// Print image to see bands
print(nadm_i)

// Visualize a single image
var nadm_palette = ["#ffffff", "#ffff00", "#fcd37f", "#ffaa00", "#e60000", "#730000"]
Map.addLayer(nadm_i, {min:-1, max:4, palette: nadm_palette}, 'nadm_i')

// Read in Image Collection and mosaic to single image
var nadm_ic = ee.ImageCollection('projects/climate-engine/nadm/monthly')
var nadm_i = ee.Image(nadm_ic.sort('system:time_start',false).first())

// Print image to see bands
print(nadm_i)

// Visualize a single image
var nadm_palette = ["#ffffff", "#ffff00", "#fcd37f", "#ffaa00", "#e60000", "#730000"]


// Define a dictionary which will be used to make legend and visualize image on map
var dict = {
  "names": [
    "No drought or wet",
    "Abnormally Dry",
    "Moderate Drought",
    "Severe Drought",
    "Extreme Drought",
    "Exceptional Drought",
  ],
  "colors": [
    "#ffffff",
    "#FFFF00",
    "#FCD37F",
    "#FFAA00",
    "#E60000",
    "#730000"
  ]};

// Create a panel to hold the legend widget
var legend = ui.Panel({
  style: {
    position: 'bottom-left',
    padding: '8px 15px'
  }
});

// Function to generate the legend
function addCategoricalLegend(panel, dict, title) {
  
  // Create and add the legend title.
  var legendTitle = ui.Label({
    value: title,
    style: {
      fontWeight: 'bold',
      fontSize: '18px',
      margin: '0 0 4px 0',
      padding: '0'
    }
  });
  panel.add(legendTitle);
  
  var loading = ui.Label('Loading legend...', {margin: '2px 0 4px 0'});
  panel.add(loading);
  
  // Creates and styles 1 row of the legend.
  var makeRow = function(color, name) {
    // Create the label that is actually the colored box.
    var colorBox = ui.Label({
      style: {
        backgroundColor: color,
        // Use padding to give the box height and width.
        padding: '8px',
        margin: '0 0 4px 0'
      }
    });
  
    // Create the label filled with the description text.
    var description = ui.Label({
      value: name,
      style: {margin: '0 0 4px 6px'}
    });
  
    return ui.Panel({
      widgets: [colorBox, description],
      layout: ui.Panel.Layout.Flow('horizontal')
    });
  };
  
  // Get the list of palette colors and class names from the image.
  var palette = dict['colors'];
  var names = dict['names'];
  loading.style().set('shown', false);
  
  for (var i = 0; i < names.length; i + + ) {
    panel.add(makeRow(palette[i], names[i]));
  }
  
  Map.add(panel);
  
}


/*
  // Display map and legend ///
*/

// Add the legend to the map
addCategoricalLegend(legend, dict, 'North America Drought Monitor(NADM) Monthly');

Map.addLayer(nadm_i, {min:-1, max:4, palette: nadm_palette}, 'NADM ' + ee.Date(nadm_i.get('system:time_start')).format('YYYY-MM-dd' ).getInfo())

Example code: https://code.earthengine.google.com/?scriptPath=users/sat-io/awesome-gee-catalog-examples:weather-climate/NADM-MONTHLY

License?

NOAA data, information, and products, regardless of method of delivery, are not subject to copyright protection and are subject to unrestricted subsequent use by the public. Once obtained, they can be used for any lawful purpose. The above data is in the public domain and is provided without restrictions on use and distribution. For more information, visit the NWS Disclaimer website.

Keywords: drought, NADM, North America, United States, Canada, Mexico

Created and provided by: NOAA, NIDIS, NCEI

Curator: Climate Engine Organization

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