A new global database of meteorological drought events from 1951 to 2016

• Published in: Journal of hydrology. Regional studies Vol. 22; p. 100593
• Main Authors: Spinoni, Jonathan, Barbosa, Paulo, De Jager, Alfred, McCormick, Niall, Naumann, Gustavo, Vogt, Jürgen V., Magni, Diego, Masante, Dario, Mazzeschi, Marco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.04.2019; Elsevier
• Subjects: Africa; Amazonia; atmospheric precipitation; Australia; Central Asia; Central European region; China; Climate change; climatology; data collection; drought; Drought events; Global database; hydrology; Mediterranean region; Meteorological drought; North America; South America; SPEI; SPI; temperature; time series analysis; South America; Central European region; China; Africa; Amazonia; Australia; Central Asia; Mediterranean region; North America; Climate change; Drought events; Meteorological drought; SPI; SPEI; Global database
• ISSN: 2214-5818; 2214-5818
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrh.2019.100593

•We collected more than 4500 drought events, at global scale, from 1951 to 2016.•We identified the biggest 52 mega-droughts occurred in 1951–2016.•In the last decades, Amazonia, southern South America, Mediterranean region, most of Africa, north-eastern China stand out as drought hotspots.•Over North America, central Europe, central Asia, and Australia, the progressive temperature increase outbalanced the increase in precipitation causing more frequent and severe droughts.•The interactive version of the database is hosted by the European Commission's Global Drought Observatory. This study has three spatial scales: global (0.5°), macro-regional, and country scale. The database of drought events has specific entries for each macro-region and country. We constructed a database of meteorological drought events from 1951 to 2016, now hosted by the Global Drought Observatory of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Events were detected at macro-regional and country scale based on the separate analysis of the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at different accumulation scales (from 3 to 72 months), using as input the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and Climatic Research Unit (CRU) Time Series datasets. The database includes approximately 4800 events based on SPEI-3 and 4500 based on SPI-3. Each event is described by its start and end date, duration, intensity, severity, peak, average and maximum area in drought, and a special score to classify 52 mega-droughts. We derived trends in drought frequency and severity, separately for SPI and SPEI at a 12-month accumulation scale, which is usually related to hydrological droughts. Results show several drought hotspots in the last decades: Amazonia, southern South America, the Mediterranean region, most of Africa, north-eastern China and, to a lesser extent, central Asia and southern Australia. Over North America, central Europe, central Asia, and Australia, the recent progressive temperature increase outbalanced the increase in precipitation causing more frequent and severe droughts.