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 New Mexico 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 |
| D1 | Burn bans and firework restrictions begin |
| Livestock need supplemental feed and water |
| D2 | Abundance and magnitude of wildfires may increase; fuel mitigation practices are in effect |
| Dust storms occur |
| Irrigated crops are stunted; dryland crops are brown |
| Pasture yield is limited; producers sell livestock |
| Well water decreases |
| Wildlife feeding patterns change |
| D3 | Fire danger is extreme |
| Irrigation allotments decrease |
| Livestock are suffering; producers are selling herds; feed costs are high; emergency CRP grazing is authorized; crop yields are low |
| Vegetation and native trees are dying |
| D4 | Bears encroach on developed areas; migratory birds change patterns |
| Federal lands begin to close for fire precautions; burn bans increase |
| No surface water is left for agriculture, farmers use private wells |
| Rio Grande and other large rivers are dry |