The Moisture Deficit and Surplus map uses moisture difference z-score (MDZ) datasets developed by scientists Frank Koch, John Coulston, and William Smith of the Forest Service Southern Research Station to represent drought and moisture surplus across the contiguous United States. A z-score is a statistical method for assessing how different a value is from the mean. Mean moisture values over 1-year windows were derived from monthly historical precipitation and temperature data from PRISM, between 1900 and 2022, and compared against a 1900-2017 baseline. The greater the z-value, the larger the departure from average conditions, indicating larger moisture deficits (droughts) or surpluses. Thus, the dark orange areas on the map indicate a 1-year window with extreme drought, relative to the average conditions over the past century. For further reading on the methodology used to build these maps, see the publication here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/43361
The Moisture Deficit and Surplus map uses moisture difference z-score (MDZ) datasets developed by scientists Frank Koch, John Coulston, and William Smith of the Forest Service Southern Research Station to represent drought and moisture surplus across the contiguous United States. A z-score is a statistical method for assessing how different a value is from the mean. Mean moisture values over 1-year windows were derived from monthly historical precipitation and temperature data from PRISM, between 1900 and 2022, and compared against a 1900-2017 baseline. The greater the z-value, the larger the departure from average conditions, indicating larger moisture deficits (droughts) or surpluses. Thus, the dark orange areas on the map indicate a 1-year window with extreme drought, relative to the average conditions over the past century. For further reading on the methodology used to build these maps, see the publication here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/43361
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