ERA5 Drought

ERA5 Drought#

Monthly drought indices from 1940 to present derived from ERA5 reanalysis is a global reconstruction of drought indices from 1940 to present.

The dataset comprises two standardised drought indices:

  • the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI)

  • the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI).

Find ore information about this data set on the ECMWF cross data store

Data:#

Only SPI data is available on Gadi for 3, 6 ad 12 months as accumulation periods from 1940 to present.

Standardised precipitation evapotranspiration index

The standardised precipitation evapotranspiration index is defined as the deviation from the reference climate and expressed in standard deviations. It evaluates the atmospheric water supply (precipitation, P) against the atmospheric water demand (potential evapotranspiration, PET), calculated as (P–PET). Positive values indicate wet conditions, and negative values indicate dry conditions with respect to the reference climate.

Location:#

The data is located at:

/g/data/su28/drought_era5

How to cite this dataset:#

European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast(2025): Monthly drought indices from 1940 to present derived from ERA5 reanalysis. ECMWF Cross Data Store (ECDS). DOI: 10.24381/9bea5e16 (Accessed on 14-May-2025)