Articles | Volume 25, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-565-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-565-2021
Research article
 | 
08 Feb 2021
Research article |  | 08 Feb 2021

Flash drought onset over the contiguous United States: sensitivity of inventories and trends to quantitative definitions

Mahmoud Osman, Benjamin F. Zaitchik, Hamada S. Badr, Jordan I. Christian, Tsegaye Tadesse, Jason A. Otkin, and Martha C. Anderson

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Cited articles

Anderson, M. C., Hain, C., Otkin, J., Zhan, X., Mo, K., Svoboda, M., Wardlow, B., and Pimstein, A.: An Intercomparison of Drought Indicators Based on Thermal Remote Sensing and NLDAS-2 Simulations with U.S. Drought Monitor Classifications, J. Hydrometeorol., 14, 1035–1056, https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-12-0140.1, 2013. 
Andreadis, K. M. and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Trends in 20th century drought over the continental United States, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L10403, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL025711, 2006. 
Basara, J. B., Christian, J. I., Wakefield, R. A., Otkin, J. A., Hunt, E. H., and Brown, D. P.: The evolution, propagation, and spread of flash drought in the Central United States during 2012, Environ. Res. Lett., 14, 084025, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2cc0, 2019. 
Basara, J. B., Christian, J., Wakefield, R., Otkin, J. A., Hunt, E. D., and Grace, T. M.: A Look Back at a Historic Flash Drought Event – The Central United States Drought of 1988, in: 34th Conference on Hydrology, AMS, Boston, MA, available at: https://ams.confex.com/ams/2020Annual/webprogram/Paper367992.html (last access: 11 July 2020), 2020. 
Bukovsky, M. S.: Masks for the Bukovsky regionalization of North America, available at: http://www.narccap.ucar.edu/contrib/bukovsky/ (last access: 2 February 2021), 2011. 
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Short summary
Our study of flash droughts' definitions over the United States shows that published definitions yield markedly different inventories of flash drought geography and frequency. Results suggest there are several pathways that can lead to events that are characterized as flash droughts. Lack of consensus across definitions helps to explain apparent contradictions in the literature on trends and indicates the selection of a definition is important for accurate monitoring of different mechanisms.