Forecasting drought revisited – the importance of spectral transformations to dominant atmospheric predictor variables

As we write this abstract, Australia is experiencing widespread forest fires, Sydney has declared significant water restriction measures curtailing demand, and the entire country is experiencing a drought that is amongst the worst on record. Formulating a stable and practical approach for predicting drought into the future is being realised as an important need, as we enter an era of warmer climates that complicate this problem to an even greater extent. This study presents a novel basis for forecasting drought into the future. Use is made of a recently developed wavelets based methodology for transforming predictor variables so as to force greater consistency in spectral attributes with the response being modelled. Using a commonly adopted drought index, we demonstrate how the wavelets transformed predictor variables can be used to model the response with greater accuracy than otherwise. These transformed predictor variables are then used in conjunction with CMIP5 decadal climate forecasts to demonstrate the accuracy attainable at longer lead times than is currently possible. While our application focusses on the Australian mainland, the method is generic and can be adopted anywhere.