Up-To-Date Drought Conditions by State!
The US Drought Monitor map shows the current extent and severity of drought across the United States, updated every Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), NOAA, and USDA. Each colored zone represents a drought intensity category — from D0 (Abnormally Dry) to D4 (Exceptional Drought) — based on a blend of satellite data, precipitation indices, streamflow, and soil moisture measurements.
How to Use This Map
Getting Started
The map loads the latest weekly USDM release automatically. Click any colored drought zone to see its category label, the map date, and the cumulative percentage of the continental US currently under that drought level or worse. Pan and zoom to focus on any region.
Filters and Controls
Use the checkboxes in the legend to toggle individual drought categories on or off. This is useful for isolating the most severe areas — for example, unchecking D0 and D1 lets you focus exclusively on Extreme and Exceptional drought zones where water supply impacts are most acute. The map updates instantly without reloading data from the server.
Drought in the United States: Context
The US Drought Monitor has published weekly maps since August 1999, making it one of the longest-running continuous drought datasets in the world. It is produced by authors at the NDMC who synthesize dozens of objective indicators with local expert input to draw the final category boundaries each week.
Drought has cascading effects across water systems. Extended dry periods reduce recharge rates for the aquifer systems that supply drinking water and irrigation to much of the country — our interactive US aquifer map shows the major groundwater systems most vulnerable to depletion during prolonged drought. Drought also significantly elevates wildfire risk: as vegetation dries and soil moisture drops, fire danger escalates across affected regions. You can track active fire incidents alongside drought conditions using the US active wildfire incidents map.
Water infrastructure feels the strain too. During drought years, reservoir levels fall and dam operators face difficult release decisions — explore how that infrastructure is distributed with the US dams interactive map. On the other end of the hydrologic cycle, drought can paradoxically increase flood risk when hardened dry soils fail to absorb sudden rain — the FEMA flood zones map shows which communities face overlapping water-related hazards.
Data Sources and Limitations
Data is sourced directly from the US Drought Monitor (NDMC/NOAA/USDA) via the ArcGIS FeatureServer, which serves the current weekly release automatically each Thursday.
- Coverage is the continental US only — Alaska and Hawaii are not included in the USDM polygon dataset shown here.
- Drought categories represent cumulative conditions over weeks to months, not day-to-day weather. A single rain event will not immediately shift a region out of drought.
- Category boundaries are drawn by human authors and involve judgment calls — the USDM is a consensus product, not a purely algorithmic output.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often is this drought map updated?
The US Drought Monitor releases a new map every Thursday by noon CT. This interactive map pulls directly from the USDM ArcGIS service and reflects the most recent published release.
What do the drought categories D0 through D4 mean?
The five categories range from least to most severe: D0 (Abnormally Dry), D1 (Moderate Drought), D2 (Severe Drought), D3 (Extreme Drought), and D4 (Exceptional Drought). D3 and D4 conditions are associated with major water supply shortages, significant crop losses, and elevated wildfire danger.
Why does my area show drought even after recent rainfall?
USDM categories reflect cumulative moisture deficits over weeks or months. A single rain event can ease short-term dryness locally, but sustained above-normal precipitation over an extended period is needed to remove a drought designation.
Can I download the drought data?
The underlying USDM data is freely available in GIS formats (shapefile, KMZ, GeoTIFF) at droughtmonitor.unl.edu. Historical weekly maps dating back to 2000 are also available for download.
Who produces the US Drought Monitor?
The USDM is a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), NOAA, and USDA. A rotating team of regional authors produces the weekly map using objective indicators combined with local expert knowledge.
