Streamflow drought visualized
 Reduced streamflow can significantly impact humans, animals, & the environment. Data from our 11,800+ streamgages guide drought prediction, inform water management, & support water sustainability efforts.
 Depending on where you live, droughts may be more common at certain times of the year. But the timing of droughts, or seasonality, has changed since the 1950s.
For many regions, droughts used to be more seasonal. Now, severe droughts are equally likely any time of the year. Other regions of the U.S. have seen the drought season shift.
For example, in the Northwest, almost all severe droughts in the 1950s and 1960s happened in the fall. Now, severe droughts are more common in spring and summer.
The U.S. has a long history of droughts.
Our streamgage data show us when and where the most severe droughts have occurred in the last 100 years.
Drought severity is a measurement that incorporates both drought duration (how long) and intensity (how dry).
Knowing when and where droughts occurred helps us predict future drought and inform water management and sustainability.
We use streamgage data to measure how drought seasonality changes through time.
Download the open data behind these data visualizations: doi.org/10.5066/P92FAASD
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