The U.S. Drought Monitor statistics are available through a set of REST services. The information below describes how to use these services. If you have any questions about the services, feel free to contact us.
Comprehensive Statistics
Comprehensive statistics include values for None and D0-D4 for each week for the selected area(s)
URL Structure
Use the following structure for the URL:
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/[area]/[statistics type]?aoi=[aoi]&startdate=[start date]&enddate=[end date]&statisticsType=[statistics format]
For HUC data, use the following structure for the URL:
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/[area]/[statistics type]?aoi=[aoi]&startdate=[start date]&enddate=[end date]&statisticsType=[statistics format]&hucLevel=[huc]
An explanation of each of the variables in the above URL is given below.
[area]
The following areas are available:
Area Type |
Value |
National |
USStatistics |
USDA Climate Hubs |
ClimateHubStatistics |
Regional Drought Early Warning Systems (RDEWS) |
RegionalDroughtEarlyWarningSystemStatistics |
Counties |
CountyStatistics |
States |
StateStatistics |
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) |
WeatherForecastOfficeStatistics |
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Districts |
USACEDistrictStatistics |
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Divisions |
USACEDivisionStatistics |
U.S. Urban Areas |
UrbanAreaStatistics |
River Forecast Centers |
RiverForecastCenterStatistics |
Regional Climate Center Regions |
RegionalClimateCenterStatistics |
National Weather Service Regions |
NWSRegionStatistics |
Hydrologic Units (HUCs) |
HUCStatistics |
FEMA Regions |
FEMARegionStatistics |
Climate Divisions |
ClimateDivisionStatistics |
Tribal Areas |
TribalStatistics |
[statistics type]
Statistics Type |
Value |
Area |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByArea |
Percent of Area |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByAreaPercent |
Population |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByPopulation |
Percent of Population |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByPopulationPercent |
DSCI |
GetDSCI |
[aoi]
Select a specific area within the type of area (i.e. a single state or county).
National
- Use us for both the continental U.S. and total U.S.
- Use conus for the continental U.S. only
- Use total for the total U.S.
USDA Climate Hubs
Regional Drought Early Warning Systems (RDEWS)
Counties
- Use the county’s five digit FIPS code or use the two letter abbreviation for a state in order to get all of the counties in that state
States
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Districts
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Divisions
Urban Areas
- Use the geo ID for each urban area
River Forecast Centers
- Use the RFC code (i.e. CBRFC = Colorado Basin RFC)
Regional Climate Center Regions
National Weather Service Regions
Hydrologic Units (HUCs)
- Use the HUC ID number (for 2, 4, 6 and 8 digit)
FEMA Regions
Climate Divisions
Tribal Areas
[start date] and [end date]
Use the following date format M/D/YYYY for the start date and end date
[statistics format]
Choose between traditional or categorical statistics. Use a value of 1 for traditional or 2 for categorical.
[huc]
Note: This parameter only applies to HUC area downloads.
Use the number 2, 4, 6, or 8 for the size of HUC that you want to use. You can use this parameter to grab all of the smaller HUCs within a larger HUC. For example if you wanted all of the 4-digit HUCs inside of a 2-digit HUCs, you would use the two digit HUC id for the aoi parameter and 4 for the huc parameter.
Output Format
By default the data are output in CSV format. You can specify an output format in the ACCEPT request header. The format options are XML, CSV, and JSON.
Note: Using a web browser to retrieve the data will return the data in CSV format by default.
Accepted header types
- text/csv
- application/xml
- text/xml
- application/json
- text/json
Examples
If a person wanted to obtain statistics for the total area in drought for both the continental U.S. and the total U.S. between the dates of January 1st, 2012 and January 1st, 2013 in traditional format, the URL would look like the following:
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/USStatistics/GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByArea?aoi=us&startdate=1/1/2012&enddate=1/1/2013&statisticsType=1
If a person wanted to obtain statistics for the total area in drought for the two digit HUC 01 between the dates of January 1st, 2012 and January 1st, 2013 in traditional format, the URL would look like the following:
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/HUCStatistics/GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByArea?aoi=01&startdate=1/1/2012&enddate=1/1/2013&statisticsType=1&hucLevel=2
Statistics by Threshold
A set of statistics can be obtained by minimum drought category and also minimum and maximum statistics values (i.e. 0 to 100 percent of area).
URL Structure
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/[area]/[statistics type]?aoi=[aoi]&dx=[drought level]&DxLevelThresholdFrom=[minimum threshold]&DxLevelThresholdTo=[maximum threshold]&startdate=[start date]&enddate=[end date]&statisticsType=[statistics format]
For HUC data, use the following structure for the URL:
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/[area]/[statistics type]?aoi=[aoi]&dx=[drought level]&DxLevelThresholdFrom=[minimum threshold]&DxLevelThresholdTo=[maximum threshold]&startdate=[start date]&enddate=[end date]&statisticsType=[statistics format]&hucLevel=[huc]
An explanation of each of the variables in the above URL is given below.
[area]
The following areas are available:
Area Type |
Value |
National |
USStatistics |
USDA Climate Hubs |
ClimateHubStatistics |
Regional Drought Early Warning Systems (RDEWS) |
RegionalDroughtEarlyWarningSystemStatistics |
Counties |
CountyStatistics |
States |
StateStatistics |
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) |
WeatherForecastOfficeStatistics |
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Districts |
USACEDistrictStatistics |
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Divisions |
USACEDivisionStatistics |
U.S. Urban Areas |
UrbanAreaStatistics |
River Forecast Centers |
RiverForecastCenterStatistics |
Regional Climate Center Regions |
RegionStatistics |
National Weather Service Regions |
NWSRegionStatistics |
Hydrologic Units (HUCs) |
HUCStatistics |
FEMA Regions |
FEMARegionStatistics |
Climate Divisions |
ClimateDivisionStatistics |
Tribal Areas |
TribalStatistics |
[statistics type]
Statistics Type |
Value |
Area |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByArea |
Percent of Area |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByAreaPercent |
Population |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByPopulation |
Percent of Population |
GetDroughtSeverityStatisticsByPopulationPercent |
[aoi]
Select a specific area within the type of area (i.e. a single state or county).
National
- Use us for both the continental U.S. and total U.S.
- Use conus for the continental U.S. only
- Use total for the total U.S.
USDA Climate Hubs
Regional Drought Early Warning Systems (RDEWS)
Counties
- Use the county’s five digit FIPS code or use the two letter abbreviation for a state in order to get all of the counties in that state
States
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Districts
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Divisions
Urban Areas
- Use the geo ID for each urban area
River Forecast Centers
- Use the RFC code (i.e. CBRFC = Colorado Basin RFC)
Regional Climate Center Regions
National Weather Service Regions
Hydrologic Units (HUCs)
- Use the HUC ID number (for 2, 4, 6 and 8 digit)
FEMA Regions
Climate Divisions
Tribal Areas
[start date] and [end date]
Use the following date format M/D/YYYY for the start date and end date
[drought level]
Drought Level |
Value |
D0 |
0 |
D1 |
1 |
D2 |
2 |
D3 |
3 |
D4 |
4 |
[minimum threshold]
The minimum percent of the area in the selected drought category to include (0-100)
[maximum threshold]
The maximum percent of the area in the selected drought category to include (0-100)
[statistics format]
Choose between traditional or categorical statistics. Use a value of 1 for traditional or 2 for categorical.
[huc]
Note: This parameter only applies to HUC area downloads.
Use the number 2, 4, 6, or 8 for the size of HUC that you want to use. You can use this parameter to grab all of the smaller HUCs within a larger HUC. For example if you wanted all of the 4-digit HUCs inside of a 2-digit HUCs, you would use the two digit HUC id for the aoi parameter and 4 for the huc parameter.
Output Format
By default the data are output in CSV format. You can specify an output format in the ACCEPT request header. The format options are XML, CSV, and JSON.
Note: Using a web browser to retrieve the data will return the data in CSV format by default.
Accepted header types
- text/csv
- application/xml
- text/xml
- application/json
- text/json
Examples
If a person wanted to obtain statistics for the percent of area in drought for the total U.S. between the dates of January 1st, 2012 and January 1st, 2013 in traditional format where the minimum percent of D1 is 10% and the maximum percent of D1 is 70%, the URL would look like the following:
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/USStatistics/GetBasicStatisticsByAreaPercent?aoi=TOTAL&dx=1&DxLevelThresholdFrom=10&DxLevelThresholdTo=70&startdate=1/1/2012&enddate=1/1/2013&statisticsType=1
If a person wanted to obtain statistics for the percent of area in drought for the two digit HUC 01 between the dates of January 1st, 2012 and January 1st, 2013 in traditional format where the minimum percent of D1 is 10% and the maximum percent of D1 is 70%, the URL would look like the following:
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/HucStatistics/GetBasicStatisticsByAreaPercent?aoi=01&dx=1&DxLevelThresholdFrom=10&DxLevelThresholdTo=70&startdate=1/1/2012&enddate=1/1/2013&statisticsType=1&hucLevel=2
Weeks in Drought
Get the number of weeks in drought greater than a selected threshold for selected U.S. counties. This can be done based either on consecutive weeks in drought or non-consecutive weeks in drought.
URL Structure
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/ConsecutiveNonConsecutiveStatistics/[consecutive or non-consecutive]?aoi=[aoi]&dx=[drought level]&minimumweeks=[threshold]&startdate=[start date]&enddate=[end date]
An explanation of each of the variables in the above URL is given below.
[consecutive or non-consecutive]
Data Type |
Value |
Consecutive Weeks in Drought |
GetConsecutiveWeeksCounty |
Non-consecutive Weeks in Drought |
GetNonConsecutiveStatisticsCounty |
[aoi]
Use the two letter abbreviation for the state(s) or leave blank to get data for all states. If you want to use multiple states, separate the abbreviations with a comma (AL,AZ).
Parameter = aoi
[start date] and [end date]
Use the following date format M/D/YYYY for the start date and end date
Use the following date format M/D/YYYY
[drought level]
Drought Level |
Value |
D0 |
0 |
D1 |
1 |
D2 |
2 |
D3 |
3 |
D4 |
4 |
[threshold]
The number of weeks in the specified drought category.
Output Format
By default the data are output in CSV format. You can specify an output format in the ACCEPT request header. The format options are XML, CSV, and JSON.
Note: Using a web browser to retrieve the data will return the data in CSV format by default.
Accepted header types
- text/csv
- application/xml
- text/xml
- application/json
- text/json
Example
The example below will return the counties in Nebraska that were in drought for at least four weeks from January 1st 2013 to January 1st, 2013. In this case the four weeks did not have to occur consecutively.
https://usdmdataservices.unl.edu/api/ConsecutiveNonConsecutiveStatistics/GetNonConsecutiveStatisticsCounty?aoi=NE&dx=0&minimumweeks=4&startdate=1/1/2012&enddate=1/1/2013