Climate Exchange

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The North American Drought Monitor

Richard R. Heim Jr and Michael J. Brewer,

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

he North American Drought Monitor (NADM) is a collabo-

rative continental drought monitoring product prepared

jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico. It illus-

trates how individual nations can work together to provide

climate services that benefit the participating countries – and

users within those participating countries – individually and

synergistically.

Agriculture has traditionally been the sector most harmed by

drought, but all economic sectors are impacted. Historically, people

have responded to drought in a reactive manner. However, the

development of products and programmes such as the US Drought

Monitor (USDM),

NADM, National Integrated Drought Information

System (NIDIS) in the US

and drought response plans in many US

states and other nations, has enabled people to begin to anticipate

drought and act in a more proactive and efficient manner.

History and purpose of the NADM

The USDM was inaugurated in 1999 as a monitoring tool depicting

current conditions of drought within the 50 United States and Puerto

Rico.

The NADM was initiated at a three-day workshop in late April

2002.

Representatives from the US, Canada and Mexico agreed to

collaborate in continental monitoring of drought as the first step in

a larger effort to improve the monitoring (and assessment of long-

term variability and trends) of a wider suite of climate

extremes on the continent, including heat waves, cold

waves, drought, flooding and severe storms. The NADM

maps were experimental from November 2002, becom-

ing operational after April 2005. The drought depiction

in Canada steadily expanded from the Prairies to all the

southern provinces as drought assessment techniques

and databases improved.

The NADM partners include:

• In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data

Center (NCDC), Climate Prediction Center (CPC),

the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and

National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC)

• In Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

and Meteorological Services of Canada (MSC)

• The National Meteorological Service (SMN) in Mexico.

These partners contribute time and personnel to NADM

activity as part of their normal operational duties (and other

duties as assigned), since there is no dedicated budget or

any funds specifically allocated to the NADM activity.

Benefits of the NADM

Coordinated monitoring of drought across North

America benefits Government, agribusiness, water

resources, utilities and similar user groups. These

groups include policymakers and water resource

planners and operators within each country, as well

as corporate players and international government

agencies with agricultural, commodity and water

management interests across North America and, ulti-

mately, the North American public. Private sector users

of the NADM include agricultural, commodity and

water management companies. Several Mexico-specific

user groups were identified at the recent NADM Forum

in Cancun,

including the Directorate General for

Economic Research of the Bank of Mexico, the Institute

for Sustainable Development in Mesoamerica, and the

Municipal Planning Institute Comitan Implan. The

benefits of using the NADM are centred on reducing

drought vulnerability and risk, and comprise a variety

of socioeconomic and public security applications (such

as disaster mitigation measures), including reduced

economic loss due to drought and more efficient

management of water resources across international

boundaries. In the early 2000s, drought afflicting the

The US Drought Monitor for 3 January 2012

Source: NOAA

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