In this work, we use the PMDI as our
primary drought indicator, although we note that the long - term time series of the PMDI is similar to that of the PDSI and PHDI, particularly at the annual scale considered here (Figs.
NASA scientists generate groundwater and soil
moisture drought indicators each week, based on terrestrial water storage observations derived from satellite data and integrated with other observations.
The methods used for drought prediction based on
certain drought indicators can be used directly to predict other hazards related to hydroclimatic variables, such as flood forecasting, although a difference may exist in the properties of variables of interest; for example, low quantile is of interest for drought prediction while high quantile is of interest for flood prediction.
Given that the ongoing California drought encompasses the most extreme 12 - mo precipitation deficit on record (8) and that both temperature and
many drought indicators reached their most extreme historical values for California in July 2014 (7)(Fig. 1 and Figs.
It's entirely plausible that many of the state's major reservoirs will be in substantially better shape after the coming winter, and that short -
term drought indicators will improve drastically — which would be very good news, indeed.
The NCDC nClimDiv database includes temperature, precipitation, and multiple
Palmer drought indicators, aggregated at statewide and substate climate division levels for the United States.
The PMDI is used as the
primary drought indicator, although the other Palmer indicators exhibit similar historical time series (Figs.
Until this study, much of the previous research included analysis of only one
drought indicator and results from fewer climate models, Cook said, making this a more robust drought projection than any previously published.
The statistical method is empirically based, using historical records without consideration of physical mechanisms, and relies on the relationship between
the drought indicator to be predicted and influencing factors (or predictors).
However, we note that the long - term time series of the PMDI is similar to that of other Palmer
drought indicators, particularly at the annual scale (Figs.