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 Kansas 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 |
|---|
| D1 | Fire danger increases |
| Pond levels are low; habitat is poor in migratory flyways |
| Wheat and grasses are drought stressed; hay demand increases |
| D2 | Blue-green algae impacts water supply; ponds and streams are dry |
| Burn bans are implemented; firework sales are banned; more grass fires occur |
| Wheat, corn, soybean, and hay yields are low; crops are severely damaged |
| D3 | Cattle sales are high; emergency grazing is opened; corn and wheat crops fail; pasture conditions are poor |
| Emergency water supplies are needed; river levels are low; municipal water restrictions are implemented |
| Major infestation of locusts occurs; quail and pheasant populations are reduced; trees are stressed |
| D4 | All aquatic species and food chains are affected; fish kills occur |
| All crops are severely impacted/not harvested; ground is cracking |
| Irrigation is turned off; river has dried up |
| Negative impact on economy is noted |
| Wildfires and large dust storms occur |