This website provides access to drought indices that are used by the Montana Governor’s Drought and Water Supply Advisory Committee (Monitoring Sub-Committee). All datasets are calculated daily and can be aggregated by watershed and county boundaries. Much of the underlying data in this dashboard is from the gridMET dataset.

The site focuses on providing current drought information using the most current peer-reviewed science, a description of the theoretical basis for a metric, data required for calculation of each index, discussion of the relative strengths and weaknesses of a metric, and validating a metric using on-the-ground observations (soil moisture, streamflow, and groundwater).

Users can select a drought indicator to analyze current conditions:

• MT Mesonet: The Montana Climate Office is leading the development of a cooperative statewide soil moisture and meteorological information system designed to support decision making in agriculture, range, and forested watershed contexts. This network will add new remote sites and integrate existing cooperator networks to develop the first statewide soil-climate network.
• Snowpack: Standardized Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) from SNODAS, Snow Water Equivalent (SNOTEL), and Accumulated Precipitation (SNOTEL)
• Precipitation: Precipitation Percentiles and Precipitation Anomaly 
• Temperature: Temperature Percentiles
• Soil Moisture: Soil Moisture Percentiles
• Vegetation: NDVI Anomaly and NDVI Trend Through Time
• Drought Metrics: Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI), and Standardized Evapotranspiration Deficit Index (SEDI)