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 North Dakota 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 | Crop germination is poor |
| Grass fires increase |
| D1 | Crops and pastures are water stressed; farmers are encouraged to have a drought plan |
| Fire danger increases |
| Grasshopper infestation occurs |
| Pond and creek levels begin to decline; more nesting areas are available for birds |
| D2 | Conditions are dusty; air quality is poor |
| Fertilizer sales are low at elevators |
| Open burn and firework restrictions are implemented; fire activity intensifies |
| River flow is decreased; stock dams are low |
| Soil moisture is low; pasture and rangeland is dry; crop conditions are poor; hay yields are low; cattle are sold |
| D3 | Blue-green algae blooms cause cattle death |
| Crops stop growing; pastures go dormant, emergency haying of conservation areas is authorized |
| Fairs have fewer entries; public meetings are scheduled with government officials to discuss drought |
| Large wildfires burn |
| D4 | Fewer hunting permits are issued |
| Local economy is at a standstill |
| Wheat is baled for hay; numerous tests are conducted on water nitrate level and quality and high nitrate levels in forage; farm service agency increases staffing; producers cull cattle |
| Wildfires are immense; rural/volunteer fire departments are stressed; rural fire departments run out of funding |