Drought Data and Reports
Pursuant to the Connecticut Drought Preparedness and Response Plan, the following drought indicators are routinely monitored by the Interagency Drought Workgroup for the purposes of analyzing conditions leading up to and during a drought, and to recommend appropriate mitigation actions:Quantitative criteria include:
- Cumulative precipitation
- Groundwater levels
- Streamflow
- Drinking water reservoir levels
- Palmer Drought Severity Index
- Crop Moisture Index
- Vegetation Drought Response Index (available only during growing season)
- Fire danger
- U.S. Drought Monitor
Qualitative or auxiliary criteria include, but are not limited to:
- Groundwater trends
- Streamflow trends
- Overall public water supply status, including reservoir and wellfield trends
- Number of public water suppliers with unique water supply situations
- Number of requests/permits for private domestic well deepening or fracking
- Agricultural reports
- Near-term and long-term weather forecasts
- Northeast Drought Early Warning System (DEWS)
Connecticut Drought Information Dashboard
- NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System - Connecticut - This page provides several maps and resources to aid in monitoring drought indicators and indices. Many of the criteria listed above can be found on this webpage.
Cumulative Precipitation
- Current NOAA-NWPS 60-day percent of normal precipitation (can be adjusted to other time frames)
- Estimated monthly precipitation by county (through March 31, 2024)
Estimated from various data sources, including official airport weather stations, cooperative weather observers and CoCoRaHS.
Groundwater
- USGS Ground Water Levels in New England. Monitoring wells are located in varied geologic settings in Connecticut. Clicking on Continuous, Climate Response Network and on Continuous in the upper right corner of the linked map will show real-time results. Other wells tend to be monitored monthly and their data can be obsolete, depending on changing conditions. Click on a station, as indicated by a small color-coded circle, to obtain detailed information.
- USGS table of near real-time ground water levels. Click on a station number to get current hydrograph of water level (up to 31 days, updated once per day)
Streamflow
- USGS map of daily streamflow (in major watersheds of the state, averaged across the most recent day)
- USGS map of 7-day streamflow (in major watersheds of the state, averaged across the most recent 7 days)
- USGS map of 4-week streamflow (in major watershed of the state, averaged across the most recent 28 days)
- USGS map of near real-time stream flow (individual stream gages - click on a station to obtain further information)
Drinking Water Supply Reservoirs
- Statewide reservoir capacity data and monthly reservoir status summary (updated monthly)
Palmer Drought Severity Index
- Palmer Drought Severity Index (updated weekly)
- Palmer Drought information by region
- About the Palmer Index
Crop Moisture Index
- Current Crop Moisture Index by climate division (updated weekly)
Vegetation Drought Response Index
- Vegetation Drought Response Index for Connecticut (updated weekly)
Fire Danger
U.S. Drought Monitor