Four maps (one of them with interactive annotations), a bar chart, and a related article – and none of them explain how “drought” is defined. What is the difference between severe, extreme, and exceptional drought? They all sound terrible.

In search of context, I went to the Drought Monitor site, where I found more cool looking maps and animated gifs…

… and finally a “what is drought” section, and a link to a comparison of major drought indices and indicators (none of which explained how the categories used by the drought monitor are defined), and a link back to monitor site. At which point I gave up.