PDSI Index - Current situation - September 2024

According to the PDSI index, at the end of September there was a decrease in the area in meteorological drought in the North and Center. In the regions south of the Tagus, the drought situation remains in the moderate and severe drought classes, with the Beja (inland) and Faro (leeward) districts standing out with several locations in the severe drought class.

In terms of percentage distribution by class of the PDSI index in mainland Portugal, at the end of September there were:

•     1.5 % in the moderate rainfall class
•     4.8 % in the light rain class
•     24.2 % in the normal class
•     23.3 % in the weak drought class
•     32.4 % in the moderate drought class
•     13.6 % in the severe drought class.

Drought monitoring

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PDSI Index (Palmer Drought Severity Index) was developed by Palmer (1965) and implemented and calibrated for mainland Portugal (Pires, 2003).

This index is based on the concept of the water balance taking into account data on the amount of precipitation, air temperature and available water capacity in the soil and allows the detection of periods of drought by classifying them in terms of intensity (weak, moderate, severe and extreme).

Last 12 month evolution