From Too Much to Too Little: A State-by-state Assessment of the 2012 Central U.S. Drought

The 2012 drought of the central U.S. developed quickly and had serious impacts across the mid-section of the country. After devastating flooding in 2011, these back-to-back extreme events caught many by surprise. In an attempt to capture the local impacts and responses, an assessment of the drought, led by the National Drought Mitigation Center, brought together state, regional, and national experts to help document this multi-billion-dollar disaster. The lessons learned from this event will increase the knowledge of drought planning, preparedness, monitoring, and impact collection, and will hopefully help planners and decision makers prepare for future events. This report was a coordinated effort between the National Drought Mitigation Center, the National Integrated Drought Information System, the National Climatic Data Center, the National Weather Service, the High Plains and Midwestern Regional Climate Centers, and the American Association of State Climatologists.