Facilitating the Use of Drought Early Warning Information through Interactions with Agricultural Stakeholders

Abstract

AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | JULY 2015| 1073 PB Extreme drought events across the United States in recent years have led to large societal impacts and contributed to lower agricultural productivity in major farming and ranching areas of the country. The total cost associated with these events has been high, with the 2012 drought alone costing more than $35 billion, making it one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history. Because droughts impact more people than any other type of natural disaster, robust drought early warning systems that effectively characterize and disseminate information to vulnerable stakeholders are necessary to assist drought mitigation and climate adaptation efforts. A prime example is the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), which has a defined goal of creating a drought early warning system that provides probabilistic forecasts with sufficient spatial Facilitating the Use of Drought Early Warning Information through Interactions with Agricultural Stakeholders