The Influence of Land Cover Type and Soil Texture on Flash Drought Development

Flash droughts are a complex subseasonal phenomena with various factors that influence the development and rate of intensification. While rapid drought development is primarily driven by a combination of precipitation deficits coupled with above-average evaporative demand, differing characteristics of the land surface may influence the risk of a particular ecosystem to flash drought development, either through increased resiliency or susceptibility to rapid drought intensification. In this study, we use NLDAS-2 data to quantify flash drought development between 1980 and 2022 over different land covers and soil textures across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Flash droughts are identified using the standardized evaporative stress ratio (SESR) and analysis is partitioned by climate regions using the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Here, we highlight the impact of land cover features on flash drought frequency, rate of intensification, and soil moisture depletion.