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2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan <br />Kittitas County, Washington <br /> <br /> <br />Chapter 4: Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment 100 <br />Figure 4-8. Washington U.S. Drought Monitor (August 27, 2024) <br /> <br /> <br />Generally, drought cannot be predicted for more than a few weeks into the future. Drought patterns <br />throughout the nation are related to large-scale climate patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, such <br />as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the Pacific and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation in the <br />Atlantic. As these large scale ocean climate patterns vary in relation to each other, drought conditions in <br />the United States shift from region to region. The intensity of a drought depends on the degree of moisture <br />deficiency, the duration, and the size and location of the affected area. The longer the duration of the <br />drought and the larger the area impacted, the more severe the potential impacts. <br />4.6.3.4. Probability and Frequency <br />The probability of occurrence for drought in Kittitas County is medium because significant occurrences <br />of this hazard have occasionally impacted the County and will likely occur again within 25 years. <br />Meteorological drought can begin and end rapidly while hydrological drought develops a lot slower and <br />takes longer to recover. Due to the significant differences in the types of droughts, different indices have <br />been developed to measure and monitor droughts in the various sectors. The USDM depicts drought <br />integrated across all time scales and differentiates between agricultural and hydrological impacts.108F <br />108 <br />Meanwhile, NOAA utilizes the PDSI to measure drought conditions (Table 4-41). <br /> <br />108 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (n.d.). Did You Know? Index (Definition of Drought). <br />Retrieved from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/dyk/drought-definition.