Current Impacts
To see or report current drought impacts, please visit the Drought Impacts Toolkit, where you can find impacts from media in the Drought Impact Reporter and from citizen scientists and other volunteer observers under Condition Monitoring Observations.
Historic Impacts
No two states have the same experience during a drought. Below are examples of some of the impacts experienced in Montana in the past. The process for developing this example impact table is described in Noel, M., Bathke, D., Fuchs, B., Gutzmer, D., Haigh, T., Hayes, M., Poděbradská, M., Shield, C., Smith, K. and Svoboda, M., 2020. Linking drought impacts to drought severity at the state level. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(8), pp.E1312-E1321. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0067.1. To view a more complete record, and to filter impacts by drought severity, sector and season, check out the interactive State Impacts Tool.
| Category | Examples of historically observed impacts |
|---|
| D0 | Fire danger increases |
| Soil moisture is low, dryland crop germination is poor, pastures are dry |
| Streamflow is low, affecting recreation fishing |
| D1 | Fire restrictions are implemented |
| Producers feed livestock supplemental hay; crops are stressed and growth is poor |
| D2 | Fire count and danger are high; air quality is poor, with dust and smoke |
| Hay and crop yields are low; hay quality is poor; subsoil moisture is nonexistent |
| Livestock ponds are low or dry; water quality is monitored; wells are stressed |
| Trees and landscaping show signs of stress and lose leaves |
| D3 | Agriculture and local business face economic loss |
| Cattle have very little water; water quality is toxic |
| Crops are not harvestable; winter pasture is opened for grazing; producers are hauling water and buying expensive supplemental feed, culling cattle and selling early; soil has large cracks; fields are bare |
| Fire restrictions increase |
| D4 | Drought hotlines are in place |
| Fire risk is extremely high; fires are widespread |
| Pasture loss is widespread; crops are destroyed |
| Property is closed for hunting |