New tool monitors drought impact nationwide A new Web-based tool from the National Drought Mitigation Center is a first step toward providing long-needed information about the impact of far-reaching but difficult-to-quantify drought. "Drought impacts are inherently hard to quantify, and there is no comprehensive and consistent methodology for quantifying drought impacts and economic losses in the United States," said Don Wilhite, director of the UNL-based drought mitigation center. "The Drought Impact Reporter is intended to be the initial step in creating such a methodology." The site, which can be accessed through a link at the drought center's Web site at http://drought.unl.edu, displays a United States map. Site visitors can drag the cursor across the U.S. map to get drought impact data for each state. Additional information - including impact breakdowns at the county level - are available by clicking on individual states.
