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 Tennessee 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 | Honey production is down; fewer plants are available to pollinate |
| Lake and pond levels begin to lower |
| D1 | Agriculture ponds dry up; farmers are hauling water; hay yield is low |
| Conditions are very dusty |
| Fire danger increases; burn bans are implemented |
| Leaves fall early |
| More insects and voles are observed, although mosquito numbers are down; disease spreads in trout, fish hatchery closes |
| Water demand is high |
| D2 | Air quality is poor; burn bans are implemented; active wildfires are reported |
| Aquatic species die off |
| Corn is severely stressed; producers are importing hay and selling livestock |
| Streams and creeks are extremely low or dry; well levels are lowering |
| Voluntary water conservation is requested; water quality is poor |
| D3 | Water supply is inadequate for wildlife |
| D4 | Large wildfires are reported |