TerraDrought: Global drought monitoring, forecasting and impact reporting

Drought is widespread and complex natural hazard, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems, economies, and societies. Recent analyses reveal pervasive drying trends across all continents, consistent with a long-term increase in atmospheric evaporative demand and a substantial expansion of drought-affected areas over the past decades. Climate projections further indicate that drought frequency, intensity, and spatial extent are very likely to continue increasing in the future. In parallel with these emerging trends, national drought monitoring systems began to develop in the mid-1990s, evolving from country-specific initiatives toward regional and continental platforms. However, systematic monitoring of drought impacts has lagged hazard monitoring and has largely remained limited to individual countries or specific sectors, with only very recent attempts at global coverage. To address these limitations, the TerraDrought initiative was launched in November 2025 with the aim of integrating real-time drought monitoring and forecasting with independent, continuous acquisition of drought impact information on the global scale. By providing timely, publicly accessible data and visualizations, TerraDrought enables more objective evaluation of ongoing drought events, supports attribution analyses, and improves communication of drought risks and impacts to decision-makers, journalists, and the general public. The system is designed to complement existing national and regional platforms and to serve as an interim solution in regions where operational drought monitoring and impact reporting are not yet established.