National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)

At its peak last summer, moderate to extreme drought gripped 61 percent of the Lower 48, but a “flash drought” brought exceptionally intense conditions to the Central Great Plains. Today, a new report by the NOAA Drought Task Force and the NOAA-led National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) finds natural variations in weather patterns caused this sudden “flash drought,” and is rules out global ocean conditions, as well as human-induced climate change, as major culprits.