In October 2024, the US set a 25-year record for water stress and drought intensity. Despite recent hurricanes, nearly 78% of the US population experienced some type of water stress by late October. The impacts stretched across every state, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Around the same time, Esri launched an overhaul of its Drought Aware map (we wrote about the previous iteration last year). This updated map adds even more authoritative data from federal agencies. It also includes new capabilities that make it easier to understand the precise impacts of drought at more local levels.
The app features three main themes to explore drought impacts.
- The Population theme describes the number of people and households affected by various levels of drought by state and county. You can also find information about vulnerable groups in affected areas and estimates of economic impact.
- In Agriculture, you can see details about the acreage of specific crops affected by drought and potential lost sales of such crops. The map also reports on the number of agricultural laborers across the selected state or county.
- Clicking the Water theme highlights major rivers and reservoirs in your area of interest. You can also compare current water levels to historical water flows for affected rivers.
The live map lets you explore and visualize drought intensity for any week since 2000. You can use the interactive timeline at the top of the app or the widget in the upper left to navigate through time. That same widget also lets you filter by drought severity by hovering over the various slices. Each slice of the radial chart uses the same bold colors as the map. You can hover over any slice to see the share of the selected state or county in each level of drought.
These types of granular insights can have real impacts. Governments can target water usage policies and aid. Farmers can visualize risks and adjust operations. And scientists can better understand emerging trends that might deviate from historical patterns.
More to Explore
- Learn more about how this interactive map was made.
- Take a deep dive into October 2024’s record-setting drought.
