Microproduct data guidebeginner

U.S. Drought Monitor

Weekly drought-category statistics for building local agricultural, water, and risk-monitoring tools.

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At a glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · ≤0.05 GB
Formats
JSON, CSV, XML
Access
API or Download
API key
Not required
Provider
National Drought Mitigation Center
Updates
Weekly
Data terms
U.S. Drought Monitor citation policy (NDMC, USDA, and NOAA)

From source to product signal

Test a product idea in four steps

The U.S. Drought Monitor REST services return weekly None and D0–D4 area statistics for a selected geography. Start with one state's two-digit FIPS code (Colorado is 08) and a few months. Categories are expert-blended drought intensity, not crop-loss claims, water-right determinations, or a forecast.

1

Check the setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • A notebook environment such as Jupyter or Google Colab
  • An internet connection
2

Access the data

  1. 1.Read the web-service documentation and choose StateStatistics with percent-of-area output.
  2. 2.Request JSON for one state FIPS code and a bounded date window.
  3. 3.Cite NDMC, USDA, and NOAA with the retrieval date before charting D0–D4 shares.
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3

Run the Python example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install pandas requests

import pandas as pd
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/StateStatistics/GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByAreaPercent",
    params={
        "aoi": "08",
        "startdate": "1/1/2025",
        "enddate": "3/25/2025",
        "statisticsType": 1,
    },
    headers={"Accept": "application/json"},
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
drought = pd.DataFrame(response.json())
drought["retrieved_at_utc"] = pd.Timestamp.now(tz="UTC")
print(drought.head())
4

Test a useful signal

Track one state's weekly drought coverage

Describe how much of Colorado spent time in D1 or worse during a bounded winter window.

  1. 01Convert the week dates and keep D0–D4 percent-of-area columns.
  2. 02Plot D1 or worse over time and note weeks with missing or zero values.
  3. 03State that D-categories are not insurance triggers and that county statistics can differ from the state series.

Dataset details

National Drought Mitigation Center is an academic source. Last verified 2026-08-17. Temporal coverage: 2000-present.

Theme

Environment & Hazards

Domains

ClimateAgricultureWater Resources

Data types

Time SeriesTabular

Tasks

Trend AnalysisAlertingRegional Comparison

Geography

United States

Formats

JSONCSVXML

Provider

National Drought Mitigation Center

Data terms

U.S. Drought Monitor citation policy (NDMC, USDA, and NOAA)