Connecting meteorological and hydrological drought in the Baltic Region
Meilutytė-Lukauskienė, Diana ; Sharifi, Alireza ; Nazarenko, Serhii ; Akstinas, Vytautas ; Haghighi, Ali Torabi ; Kobets, Yaroslav ; Kokorīte, Ilga ; Jurgelėnaitė, Aldona ; Hashemi, Hossein LU
and Shahnazi, Saman
(2025)
In Atmospheric Research
322.
- Abstract
Drought, a widely recognised and far-reaching natural hazard, has a profound impact on the global economy and the environment. This complex phenomenon, characterised by its severity, duration and spatial extent, is central to understanding its multifaceted impacts. Drought indices are an important tool for characterising and monitoring drought conditions. They provide a simplified way to understand the myriad climate factors that play a role. They also provide quantifiable measures for assessing the severity, duration and frequency of climate anomalies. In the Baltic Region, the relationships between meteorological (using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI)) and hydrological drought... (More)
Drought, a widely recognised and far-reaching natural hazard, has a profound impact on the global economy and the environment. This complex phenomenon, characterised by its severity, duration and spatial extent, is central to understanding its multifaceted impacts. Drought indices are an important tool for characterising and monitoring drought conditions. They provide a simplified way to understand the myriad climate factors that play a role. They also provide quantifiable measures for assessing the severity, duration and frequency of climate anomalies. In the Baltic Region, the relationships between meteorological (using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI)) and hydrological drought (using the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI)) were analysed and the possibility of using the RDI instead of the SPI was investigated. For each index, accumulation periods of 6, 9 and 12 months were used, analysing data from the period 1961–2020. Our study attempts to investigate the relationships between the SPI, RDI and SDI indices using data from specific hydrometeorological stations across the Baltic Region, highlighting differences between four delineated sub-regions. For most accumulation periods in the northern sub-regions, SDI showed a better relationship to SPI than RDI. However, in the southwestern sub-region for late summer and early autumn and in the southeastern sub-region for long accumulation periods, RDI showed a better relationship with SDI. This pattern reveals the limitation of the RDI index in cold climate zones and its threshold could be defined as the northern boundary of the southern sub-regions. The study shows that the drought indices in the Baltic Region serve as valuable tools to characterise drought conditions and facilitate the assessment of the spatial and temporal characteristics and severity of drought.
(Less)
- author
- Meilutytė-Lukauskienė, Diana
; Sharifi, Alireza
; Nazarenko, Serhii
; Akstinas, Vytautas
; Haghighi, Ali Torabi
; Kobets, Yaroslav
; Kokorīte, Ilga
; Jurgelėnaitė, Aldona
; Hashemi, Hossein
LU
and Shahnazi, Saman
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Baltic Region, Drought indices, Drought relations, RDI, SDI, SPI
- in
- Atmospheric Research
- volume
- 322
- article number
- 108138
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105002428458
- ISSN
- 0169-8095
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.atmosres.2025.108138
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c0a5c8d9-0bb9-446d-a633-f628def469bf
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-07 11:46:06
- date last changed
- 2025-08-07 11:47:23
@article{c0a5c8d9-0bb9-446d-a633-f628def469bf,
abstract = {{<p>Drought, a widely recognised and far-reaching natural hazard, has a profound impact on the global economy and the environment. This complex phenomenon, characterised by its severity, duration and spatial extent, is central to understanding its multifaceted impacts. Drought indices are an important tool for characterising and monitoring drought conditions. They provide a simplified way to understand the myriad climate factors that play a role. They also provide quantifiable measures for assessing the severity, duration and frequency of climate anomalies. In the Baltic Region, the relationships between meteorological (using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI)) and hydrological drought (using the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI)) were analysed and the possibility of using the RDI instead of the SPI was investigated. For each index, accumulation periods of 6, 9 and 12 months were used, analysing data from the period 1961–2020. Our study attempts to investigate the relationships between the SPI, RDI and SDI indices using data from specific hydrometeorological stations across the Baltic Region, highlighting differences between four delineated sub-regions. For most accumulation periods in the northern sub-regions, SDI showed a better relationship to SPI than RDI. However, in the southwestern sub-region for late summer and early autumn and in the southeastern sub-region for long accumulation periods, RDI showed a better relationship with SDI. This pattern reveals the limitation of the RDI index in cold climate zones and its threshold could be defined as the northern boundary of the southern sub-regions. The study shows that the drought indices in the Baltic Region serve as valuable tools to characterise drought conditions and facilitate the assessment of the spatial and temporal characteristics and severity of drought.</p>}},
author = {{Meilutytė-Lukauskienė, Diana and Sharifi, Alireza and Nazarenko, Serhii and Akstinas, Vytautas and Haghighi, Ali Torabi and Kobets, Yaroslav and Kokorīte, Ilga and Jurgelėnaitė, Aldona and Hashemi, Hossein and Shahnazi, Saman}},
issn = {{0169-8095}},
keywords = {{Baltic Region; Drought indices; Drought relations; RDI; SDI; SPI}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Atmospheric Research}},
title = {{Connecting meteorological and hydrological drought in the Baltic Region}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2025.108138}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.atmosres.2025.108138}},
volume = {{322}},
year = {{2025}},
}