DAS Rural Platform: Drought Index. Built to provide a clearer view of long-term rainfall trends, this index helps our users better understand climate variability and its effect on agricultural risk.

The Drought Index measures the number of years within the last 30 (from 1995 to 2024) where a location received 70% or less of its 30-year average annual rainfall. It gives a straightforward way to understand how frequently a farm experiences significant rainfall deficits.

For example:
An index value of 1 means that in the past 30 years, only one year fell below the 70% threshold.
A value of 5 means five years in the period experienced lower-than-expected rainfall.

We explored several rainfall risk metrics during development, including:

However, users found that the simplest, clearest measure was the count of years below 70% of average rainfall—especially for benchmarking drought frequency across farms and regions.
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This approach was strongly supported by our clients due to its clarity and national applicability.

"This measure shows the number of years that only achieved 70% or less of its respective annual rainfall in the last 30 years.
3 to 4 years in total is deemed an average amount, less than that implies less frequent deficit years, more than that implies an increase in deficit years."

You’ll find the Drought Index listed in the Risk tab alongside other insights such as:

Available on both System Farms and Custom Farms across Australia.

💬 Have feedback or ideas for how we can evolve this dataset further? Let us know via the Help button, or email us at customersuccess@dasintel.io.