Drought Monitor

US Drought Monitor API

Weekly drought conditions across the United States. No authentication required.

Data Model

• StateStatistics — Drought severity percentages by state for a date range.
• CountyStatistics — Same data at county granularity (FIPS codes).
• County-level data — drought statistics at the county level using 5-digit FIPS codes, providing more granular geographic detail than state-level queries.
• CONUS — Continental US aggregate statistics.

Drought Severity Levels

• None — No drought
• D0 — Abnormally Dry
• D1 — Moderate Drought
• D2 — Severe Drought
• D3 — Extreme Drought
• D4 — Exceptional Drought

Key Parameters

• aoi — Area of interest: two-letter state code (e.g. "CA"), FIPS county code, or "us" for national.
• startdate / enddate — Date range in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• statisticsType — 1 = percent area in each category, 2 = percent population affected.

Gotchas

• Data is updated every Thursday.
• Date range queries return weekly snapshots within that period.
• Area percentages are cumulative (D2 includes D3 and D4 area).
• Use statisticsType=1 for geographic coverage, statisticsType=2 for population impact.