As drought spreads across Alabama, state leaders are encouraging property owners to routinely report ground conditions and impact, information that directly influences the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Alabama Associate State Climatologist Lee Ellenburg said documentation from farmers, forest landowners, gardeners and homeowners through the Conditions Monitoring Observer Reports (CMOR) is crucial to honing the Drought Monitor’s accuracy. 

“The Drought Monitor is meant to be a one-stop-shop that encompasses all aspects of drought and the severity of the current drought while providing a single metric of conditions,” Ellenburg said. “We recognize impacts really tell that story. They help us refine lines (of dry areas) and provide detailed input.”

CMOR allows citizen-reporters to note their location, date, severity of drought and specific impacts. They can also upload photos.

That information helps the state climatologist provide comprehensive recommendations about drought severity to the U.S. Drought Mitigation Center. Experts combine those accounts with metrics on precipitation, soil moisture, temperature and more to create the U.S. Drought Monitor map, released Thursdays at 7:30 a.m. CST.

Last year, Alabama uploaded over 600 reports through CMOR, the second highest in the nation. In 2022, that number was just 61. The spike is largely due to Alabama Drought Reach, a new program housed in Auburn University’s Water Resources Center. 

In addition to encouraging individual citizen reports, Alabama Drought Reach uses Alabama Extension’s statewide network of agents to expand data collection.

Those agents recommend farmers proactively report conditions to help identify weather patterns, said Extension’s Kent Stanford.

“We really need to think about reporting and getting accurate data on the days it’s raining, not just the days it’s not raining,” said Stanford, an Extension specialist in crop, soil and environmental sciences. “That data has a direct impact on government programs that come along when times get tough. We have to be on the front end of getting that information.”

Submit CMOR accounts, and learn more about Alabama Drought Reach, at aub.ie/drought.