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 Louisiana 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 | Grass fires increase |
| D1 | Farmers plant fewer crops |
| Fire risk increases |
| D2 | Creeks and bayou water levels are low |
| Grass is not growing; ground is cracking; grazing forage is lost |
| Trees are stressed |
| D3 | Allergies worsen; air quality is poor |
| Burn and firework bans are implemented; fires are difficult to extinguish |
| Rice crop is expensive to maintain; soybean yields are reduced; rye growth is stunted |
| Saltwater intrudes into rivers; rivers are too salty for irrigation |
| Trees are drought stressed; crawfish population is low |
| Water pressure is low; voluntary water restrictions are requested |
| D4 | Fishing is compromised |
| Mosquito numbers decrease |
| Pasture and crop loss is widespread |
| Water shortages and restrictions are implemented |