Palmer drought index

[1] The index uses precipitation and temperature data to study moisture supply and demand using a simple water balance model.

[1][2][3] It was developed by meteorologist Wayne Palmer, who first published his method in the 1965 paper Meteorological Drought[4] for the Office of Climatology of the U.S.

Palmer tried to overcome these difficulties by developing an algorithm that approximated them based on the most readily available data, precipitation and temperature.

Global Palmer data sets have been developed based on instrumental records beginning in the 19th century.

[7] In addition, dendrochronology has been used to generate estimated Palmer index values for North America for the past 2000 years, allowing analysis of long term drought trends.