Flash drought monitoring Forecasts
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Flash drought definition

Flash drought refers to drought that rapidly develops and intensifies at the subseasonal timescale. Flash drought is especially important for some agriculture practices as it can have destructive impact on plants and production due to their flash character.

In Australia, the first flash drought event was objectively identified using the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) and based on an anecdotal report from a sheep farmer Mrs. Kym Thomas and detailed in Nguyen et al 2019.

Identification and monitoring of flash drought can be done using the ESI, Rapid change index (RCI) and Flash drought index (FDI). The ESI is the standardised anomalies of evapotranspiration ratio. The ESI is suitable for drought conditions that affect agriculture and natural ecosystems. Therefore it can capture the stress level on vegetation. The RCI captures the speed of change in the ESI anomalies over time. The FDI indicate the onset and length of the flash drought event. More details on computation of these indices can be found in Nguyen et al 2021

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