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A new report cautions that weather and climate conditions, including the onset of higher temperatures during spring, should not be used as a trigger to relax COVID-19 transmission reduction measures.

Joel Lisonbee, Molly Woloszyn, and Marina Skumanich with the CPO-led National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) developed a literature review to synthesize the research to date and provide a basis for future research on flash droughts. Specifically, they focused on documenting the range of definitions of “flash drought” being proposed in the research community.

The assessment focuses on conditions and sector impacts as a resource for future management of drought and other climate extremes.

The project will enhance the soil moisture monitoring network in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and improve the application of soil moisture data to decision making in the region.

The 2017 Northern Plains flash drought’s swift onset and severity were not forecasted, and it resulted in fires that burned 4.8 million acres and U.S. agricultural losses in excess of $2.6 billion dollars. Episodes like this have sparked intense interest in flash drought and a clear conceptualization of what it is in both the research community and the end user/applications community