What does the season condition tool tell me?

For one district and a period of one, three or six months, it says whether rainfall was well below, below, near, above or well above normal, and the same for vegetation greenness. It gives the numbers behind each answer, how the period ranks against past years, a chart and a small map.

What does "normal" mean here?

Rainfall is compared with the same months in each year from 1991 to 2020; vegetation with the same months from 2001 to 2020, the first full twenty years of the MODIS record. "Near normal" means the middle third of those years. "Below" and "above" are the lower and upper thirds, and "well below" and "well above" the lowest or highest tenth.

Why is vegetation measured on cropland?

Crops respond to a poor season sooner and more clearly than forest. Where at least 5% of a district is cropland in ESA WorldCover 2021, vegetation is measured on cropland; otherwise it is measured on all vegetated land, and the answer says which.

Can I use the answer in a report?

Yes, including in funding bids and published reports, provided the "Generated at TechnicalGIS.com" line and the data credits shown with the answer are kept. Answers are kept for 90 days and can be shared by link.

Is this a drought declaration or a food-security assessment?

No. It is an indication from satellite data. Official drought and food-security classifications combine many sources, including field surveys and markets. Use this answer to ask better questions, and check it with people who know the district.

Season condition

Is this district's season drier, or its vegetation weaker, than normal? Choose a country and a district, choose the period, and the service compares rainfall and vegetation with past years and answers in plain language. No GIS software or account is needed, and the answer works on a slow connection.

1. Choose the place

Country

2. Choose the period

Length Ending

Choose a country and a district first.

Usually ready in about one minute. Protected by Cloudflare Turnstile; up to 15 new questions a day per visitor, shared with the climate tools. Answers already worked out are returned at once and do not count. See the privacy policy.

Choose a country to see its districts. You can then pick a district by clicking it.

District boundaries from geoBoundaries, simplified for the web.

Looking for the other question? Try Flood impact.

How the answer is worked out

Rainfall. Monthly CHIRPS rainfall, about 5 km across, is averaged over the district and added up for the period. The total is compared with the same months in every year from 1991 to 2020.
Vegetation. The MODIS vegetation index (NDVI), at 250 m, is averaged over cropland in the district, or over all vegetated land where there is little cropland, and compared with the same months from 2001 to 2020.
The words. Each value is placed among the baseline years. The lowest tenth is "well below normal", the rest of the lowest third "below normal", the middle third "near normal", and so on upwards.
Large districts. Vegetation is read at a coarser grid where needed to keep each answer within the server's limits; the answer states the grid used.

How reliable is this?

Each answer carries a reliability note: fairly reliable, use with care or low reliability. It is lowered when the district covers only a few rainfall grid cells, when clouds left fewer vegetation images than expected, or when vegetation could not be measured at all. The answer lists the specific limitations that apply.

Satellite rainfall estimates are least accurate in mountains and in places with few rain gauges.
Vegetation responds weeks after rain, so a short period can show dry rainfall but normal vegetation.
A district average can hide a dry corner. For a closer look at part of a district, contact us.
The results are indicative. They are not a substitute for field assessment or for official drought and food-security classifications.

Data sources and licences

Each source was checked on its provider's own page before use; last checked 29 October 2026.

Source	Licence	Credit
CHIRPS v3 rainfall	CC BY 4.0	UCSB Climate Hazards Center CHIRPS version 3.0, processed by dynamical.org. Funk, C. et al. (2026), Sci Data 13, 718. https://doi.org/10.15780/G2JQ0P. CC BY 4.0.
MODIS MOD13Q1 v061 vegetation index	NASA open data, no restrictions on use	MODIS MOD13Q1 v061: Didan, K. (2021). NASA EOSDIS LP DAAC. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD13Q1.061. Accessed via Microsoft Planetary Computer. Use does not imply endorsement by NASA.
ESA WorldCover 2021 land cover	CC BY 4.0	© ESA WorldCover project 2021 / Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021) processed by ESA WorldCover consortium. CC BY 4.0.
geoBoundaries administrative boundaries	Per country (CC BY, ODbL or open government licence)	Runfola, D. et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231866.

Questions

What does the season condition tool tell me?: For one district and a period of one, three or six months, it says whether rainfall was well below, below, near, above or well above normal, and the same for vegetation greenness. It gives the numbers behind each answer, how the period ranks against past years, a chart and a small map.
What does "normal" mean here?: Rainfall is compared with the same months in each year from 1991 to 2020; vegetation with the same months from 2001 to 2020, the first full twenty years of the MODIS record. "Near normal" means the middle third of those years. "Below" and "above" are the lower and upper thirds, and "well below" and "well above" the lowest or highest tenth.
Why is vegetation measured on cropland?: Crops respond to a poor season sooner and more clearly than forest. Where at least 5% of a district is cropland in ESA WorldCover 2021, vegetation is measured on cropland; otherwise it is measured on all vegetated land, and the answer says which.
Can I use the answer in a report?: Yes, including in funding bids and published reports, provided the "Generated at TechnicalGIS.com" line and the data credits shown with the answer are kept. Answers are kept for 90 days and can be shared by link.
Is this a drought declaration or a food-security assessment?: No. It is an indication from satellite data. Official drought and food-security classifications combine many sources, including field surveys and markets. Use this answer to ask better questions, and check it with people who know the district.

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