Drought Early Warning System

The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) is a Congressional authorized program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Southeast, specifically the ACF basin in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, is the second regional pilot project for NIDIS. The ACF pilot project will last three years with the resulting product being a drought early warning system for the basin. Results from the ACF pilot will be used to scale up drought early warning systems across the United States. Three conferences were held in 2009 with technical experts and stakeholders in the basin. The first conference was to outline the scope of the pilot project while the second conference engaged the technical experts. The third conference in December set up the structure of the early warning system and started the development of the early warning product. A side benefit of the early warning system is that it will be a central location for water management information during droughts and between droughts. UGA biological and agricultural scientists are instrumental in guiding this project.