Decommissioning of National Drought Map
The National Drought Map will be decommissioned from 1 July 2023. Learn about other data sources and tools where you can access up-to-date information on climate and agriculture.
The Australian Government is developing indicators and an early warning system to help it monitor drying conditions.
The 2017-2019 drought highlighted the need to better measure and forecast impacts on farmers and regional communities.
Drought isn’t just about how much rain falls on a farm. The capacity to cope with dry conditions also depends on other factors. These include when rain falls, what the prevailing temperature, water balances, commodity prices and input costs are, and what financial and other reserves remain. Some of these factors are being integrated into an early warning system for drought.
The system will help translate climate data into current and future impacts on agriculture. It will feed Bureau of Meteorology seasonal forecasts into ABARES and CSIRO models to estimate rainfall deficiencies, soil moisture, pasture growth, crop yield and farm profit for 5km areas. These indicators will provide government with monthly data about the extent, severity and timing of impacts as conditions dry.
The system will support the Australian Government’s drought decision-making framework which is being developed to inform future government responses to drought. This framework will draw on the system’s data about emerging impacts as well as what we hear from organisations, industries, governments and our staff in affected regions. Through data, and a deeper understanding of what’s happening on the ground, we can work with all stakeholders to prepare for, manage and recover from drought.
Data sources
Many of the data sources, models and tools that feed into the early warning system are also available publicly, for use by farmers, their advisers, industry and other organisations. They can be accessed via:
- Climate Services for Agriculture
- ABARES farm data portal
- Bureau of Meteorology climate outlook
- Bureau of Meteorology drought statement
- Bureau of Meteorology Australian water outlook
- National Landcare Program vegetation cover time series.
Information on programs and services to help farmers and rural communities manage changing conditions continues to be available on our website and from the Australian Government’s Recovery Connect website.
For further information, please email droughtpolicy@agriculture.gov.au.