Identification

Title

Flash drought timing and winter wheat productivity in the southern Great Plains of the United States

Abstract

Flash droughts are highly impactful, subseasonal to seasonal events that pose a severe risk to agricultural production. Within the United States, these rapidly intensifying droughts have the potential to cause tens of billions of dollars of crop loss and long-lasting impacts to the overall U.S. economy. This study examined flash drought events across a vital agricultural region of winter wheat production in the United States spanning the 40-yr period from 1981 to 2020. The southern Great Plains was selected given 1) the agriculturally dense winter wheat cultivation and 2) the high frequency of flash drought occurrence in this region. The standardized evaporative stress ratio (SESR) was used to identify and analyze flash drought events’ spatial coverage, the rapidity of onset, and spread across the region. These events are defined as simultaneous flash droughts (SFDs) within this study and provide critical information regarding recent changes in flash droughts and the potential impacts to agricultural producers. The results demonstrated that flash drought events which develop and intensify between July and October have significant negative impacts on winter wheat productivity and overall reduced yields. Conversely, SFDs that occur toward the end of the life cycle have minimal impacts and may result in above-average winter wheat yields.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d71r6vz6

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-06-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact