What's New at NDMC - April 2008
Drought Category Percent Area Now Available by County:
In response to popular demand, we are now making Excel spreadsheets available each week showing the percent area in each category of drought for every county in the United States.
The weekly statistics for the entire United States, the contiguous 48 states, for individual states, and for counties can now be downloaded through the GIS Data archive page on the U.S. Drought Monitor site at: http://drought.unl.edu/dm/dmshps_archive.htm.
Mark Svoboda, NDMC climatologist and Drought Monitor author, said, “We felt it was time to bite the bullet and give folks what they have been asking for. As it is a reality that the DM is being used more and more by various federal entities at the county level, it seems only right to provide the public with fair and equal access to this data that are being used in decision-making at many levels.”
In addition to writing or calling the contact information listed on the Drought Monitor site, anyone can weigh in on drought conditions by going to the Drought Impact Reporter at http://droughtreporter.unl.edu and clicking on “Add An Impact.”
NDMC Expands K-12 Curriculum Development:
The National Drought Mitigation Center is involved in many efforts to develop and test drought and climate-related activities and curricula for K-12 students. Recent venues include the earth wellness festival, which is attended by all the fifth-graders in Lincoln, and is sponsored by the Lower Platte South Natural Resource District (LPSNRD), the National Drought Mitigation Center, Lancaster County Extension, Lincoln Public Schools, the Lincoln-Lancaster Health Department, and the City of Lincoln Recycling and Wastewater Divisions; and Nature Nights, sponsored by LPSNRD and the University of Nebraska-Extension. Activities are staffed by volunteers, environmental educators, teachers, and organization and agency employees throughout Lincoln, Lancaster County, and Southeast Nebraska.
Note: This information has been condensed from NDMC's quarterly publication DroughtScape. DroughtScape can be found on our full-service website, or can be requested by email to: ndmc@unl.edu.
Visit our full-service website at drought.unl.edu.
© 2008 National Drought Mitigation Center