Meteorological Drought
Meteorological (sometimes referred to as climatological) droughts are simply defined as a shortfall of precipitation, over a period of time. The amount of the shortfall and the duration are specific to location or region. A meteorological drought in the Southeast United States is different from one in Northern Plains due to the differences in precipitation patterns with climate regimes.
Source: Atlanta GA - 2016 | NWS | NOAA
There are multiple ways to define a meteorological drought:
- The number of days without precipitation
- The number of days with precipitation less than a specified threshold
- Departures from monthly, seasonal or annual precipitation totals
This graph from the National Weather Service shows the running rainfall total for January - December 2016. The total of 38.69” is below the typical annual total of 47.19”