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 Arkansas 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 |
| D1 | Forage crops are stunted |
| More wildfires occur than normal |
| River levels decline |
| D2 | Burn bans begin |
| Crops are negatively impacted; some crops are not planted; hay yield is low; farmers begin feeding cattle early |
| Reservoirs decline; rivers are very low; rivers are dredged |
| D3 | Pastures are depleted; hay is short; cattle are sold |
| There are more insects than normal; trees show drought stress; wildlife seek food and water |
| There is not enough water to fight fires |
| Water shortages are noted; water table is low; stock ponds are dry |
| D4 | Crops have little or no yield; cattle weights are low; milk production is low |
| Daily life is impacted for outdoor workers |
| Trees and wildlife are dying |
| Voluntary water conservation is implemented; water is expensive |