CDC-Data-2025/attachments/SPEI_Metadata_Jan2017_djvu.txt
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National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network
Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) Metadata
Publication Date
01/11/2017
Background
The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is an extension of the
widely used Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The SPEI is designed to take into
account both precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (PET) in determining
drought. Thus, unlike the SPI, the SPEI captures the main impact of increased
temperatures on water demand. Like the SPI, the SPEI can be calculated on a range of
timescales from 1-48 months. At longer timescales (>~18 months), the SPEI has been
shown to correlate with the self-calibrating PDSI (sc-PDSI). If only limited data are
available, such as temperature and precipitation, PET can be estimated with the simple
Thornthwaite method. In this simplified approach, variables that can affect PET such as
wind speed, surface humidity and solar radiation are not accounted for. The dataset
includes one-month SPEI values for every contiguous US county and the District of
Columbia monthly from 1895-2016.
The dataset has been compiled to estimate wetness and dryness of a particular area.
This is important for the agriculture as well as health sectors. The data can be used to
examine local and national trends in drought information.
Data Values
Range from -3 (dry) to +3 (wet). 0 indicates normal conditions. Missing data is noted as
-99,99,
Geographic Scale
Data includes all counties in the lower 48 states plus the District of Columbia.
& Scope
Time Period January 1, 1895 — December 31, 2016. Known to be accurate as of time period end date.
Raw Data Data were downloaded from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Processing (NOAA) server and were originally provided as monthly values at a 5km grid. Distance
weighting functions were applied to constrain the drought values to a specific US county.
No data were lost or omitted during calculation. All data that were available were used.
Data will be updated on an ad hoc basis, when necessary.
Additional Vicente-Serrano, Sergio M. & National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds). Last
Information
modified 18 Jul 2015. "The Climate Data Guide: Standardized Precipitation
Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)." Retrieved from
https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/standardized-precipitation-
evapotranspiration-index-spei.
Vicente-Serrano, Sergio M., Santiago Begueria, Juan |. L6pez-Moreno, 2010: A
Multiscalar Drought Index Sensitive to Global Warming: The Standardized Precipitation
Evapotranspiration Index. J. Climate, 23, 1696-1718.