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Crippling drought in the West has caused more than a million dollars in damage. Those trying to manage its effects often turn to a map that gets updated every week regardless of a government shutdown. It's called the U.S. Drought Monitor. Grace Hood of Colorado Public Radio and NPR's energy and environment team explains.
GRACE HOOD, BYLINE: Everyone has a weekly routine. Some check stocks. Others look to weather. For retired schoolteacher Dave Kitts, it's the U.S. Drought Monitor map.
DAVE KITTS: I don't know. I think it's a little obsessive, but, yeah, I check it every Thursday.
HOOD: The past year hasn't been good to Kitts or his 2-acre spread outside Santa Fe. Dry years crust the soil and can kill his pinyon trees.
KITTS: It's just upsetting and depressing to me. And when it moves the other direction, it definitely lifts my spirits.
HOOD: The National Drought Monitor map isn't just for citizen scientists like Kitts. It's for water planners who decide resource allotments, farmers who need water for their livelihoods. Most importantly, it's for federal bureaucrats who use the map to unleash billions in U.S. aid. Each week, they can see the United States. Across the West, yellow, orange and red show just how dry things are, with a big crimson bull's-eye in the Southwest. Mark Svoboda started this map 20 years ago.
MARK SVOBODA: We're covering everything from groundwater to stream flow, temperature.
HOOD: Svoboda is a diet Mountain Dew-drinking scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As droughts become more severe with climate change, he thinks the work deserves more attention.
SVOBODA: Droughts are like the Rodney Dangerfield of hazards. They just don't get any respect.
HOOD: Think about TV crews. They rush out to stand near hurricanes and wildfires, but they rarely flock to desiccated farm fields. Here's what goes into the map. It takes hundreds of people, like Colorado assistant climatologist Becky Bolinger.
BECKY BOLINGER: I'm personally feeling a little bit more hopeful.
HOOD: Because she's seen more snow to start this winter.
BOLINGER: And that we will be able to start chipping away at the drought in the Southwest.
HOOD: That's what Bolinger saw in the data. But she wanted more context from Colorado's farmers and ranchers, so she asked for field reports.
BOLINGER: And we've gotten some very specific examples of, like, well, I went out to put in a wood post, and the surface of the ground was wet. And three inches deep, the soil was bone-dry.
HOOD: That tells Bolinger that recent rain was not enough. She submits her recommendation along with dozens of similar reports from around the U.S. Then it's up to map authors like David Simeral to make sense of it all.
DAVID SIMERAL: It's a physically and emotionally draining process taking those recommendations as well as then starting to dig into the data.
HOOD: He's meticulous because each week's map has the author's name and contact information. He has to justify decisions to everyone, including politicians who want more federal aid and agricultural producers who receive it. Ultimately it's the compilation of reports over time that help people like Colorado rancher Matt Isgar. He uses the tool to figure out where his cows should feed.
MATT ISGAR: It tells you what direction the drought is trending towards. So you know, if you're looking for pasture or forage, you tend to go the other direction.
HOOD: This winter, Isgar will keep an eye on the Drought Monitor, hoping the drought will leave his land as quietly as it came. For NPR News, I'm Grace Hood.