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U.S. Drought Monitor
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Richard Heim, Liz Love-Brotak, National Drought Mitigation Center

This is a real-time map of current drought conditions in the US, which can be zoomed to the state level, with access to many more resources at that level. Some of these include the National Drought Regional Summaries and animations of historical data.

Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»


Grade Level

Regional Focus

Topics

Climate Literacy

This Static Visualization builds on the following concepts of Climate Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

Notes From Our Reviewers The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy | Technical Details

Teaching Tips

  • This is a comprehensive source of drought data - both real-time and historical. Educators need to determine how best to integrate into their teaching.
  • Educators can use these data to address the many facets of the impact of drought on Earth.

About the Content

  • The US Drought Monitor is a compilation of statistics and maps compiled by University of Nebraska, Lincoln, using data from various government sources. There are also links to the state climatologist and regional climate center.
  • Comments from expert scientist: The Drought Monitor is a comprehensive index of current and historical drought across the United States, bringing significant information value to decision makers, from the level of individual farmer to congressperson.
  • The resource offers precipitation and temperature projections both in the short (1-2 year) and long term (30+ years).
  • The Drought Monitor uses the most recent and accurate scientific data, explains the limitations of the indices it relies upon, always substantiates and references material, and provides contact information for the author.

About the Pedagogy

  • Resource includes a lot of detailed information that can be used to investigate current and historical patterns and trends in drought areas, but it requires digging in to access the information.
  • A simple, easy-to-read map for students to interpret.

Technical Details/Ease of Use

  • There are related links and data sources easy to access from the National Drought Mitigation Center home page http://drought.unl.edu/
Entered the Collection: October 2018 Last Reviewed: May 2016

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