Do you know how to measure soil moisture levels or have a deep understanding of your region’s hydrology?

No?

Well, it doesn’t matter — if you want to help inform those responsible for analyzing drought conditions across Maine and the country, all you need is your own observations.

It doesn’t take a scientist to tell you that your lawn is turning brown, the pond you frequent is low, or your well is drying up. In fact, that’s where you’re the expert.

During a drought, one can’t help but feel a little helpless. It’s not like we can make it rain.

But you can help, because the public’s input is taken into account when the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor maps are put together. The maps and data are used to analyze drought impacts, and federal agencies consider them when they weigh whether to declare drought-related disasters.

Here’s how it all works — and where the average Mainer fits into the equation:

ONE NATION, UNDER DROUGHT

Those yellow, orange and red drought maps of Maine don’t really end at the state line.

The U.S. Drought Monitor was formed in 1999 by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meteorologists and climatologists from those entities take turns as the lead author of the national map, usually rotating every two weeks.

Precipitation is a major factor in analyzing a drought, but far from the only one. Streamflow, reservoir levels, temperatures, soil moisture, evaporation and vegetation health all play a role as well.

The author will compile that data (much of it obtained via satellite) and come up with a draft of that week’s map.

But numbers don’t tell the full story, nor can one meteorologist or climatologist. That’s where regional and local experts step in.

LOCAL EXPERTS

Sarah Jamison, senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service office in Gray, is one of those experts.

Every week, she and other members of the Northeast Drought Early Warning System review the Drought Monitor’s draft and weigh in with their knowledge of the region.

“They’re getting not just their own assessment, not just the raw numbers, but they’re getting the more localized feedback,” Jamison said. “We don’t define what it should be for New England, but we recommend some changes.”

Local experts are necessary because the data isn’t one-size-fits-all.

“The same kind of dryness in Utah may reflect completely different impacts as it would to Cumberland County,” Jamison said. “There is climatology that’s also weighed into this.”

The Drought Monitor says it consults hundreds of regional and local experts. The weekly maps are, essentially, a (very) well-educated guess.

“It’s definitely a consolidation of a lot of contributors and a lot of information, balanced by the impact reports that they do solicit,” Jamison said.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

There’s no way for the experts who contribute to the weekly Drought Monitor maps to be everywhere at once, which is where Condition Monitoring Observer Reports come in. Anyone (18 or older, in most states) can find and fill out the form at droughtimpacts.unl.edu or drought.gov, or via the ArcGIS Survey123 app.

The observer report starts by asking for some basic information, like your location, familiarity with the area and general observations.

Then, there are over a dozen optional questions pertaining to a wide range of topics, from livestock and crop production to home and garden impacts. There are also questions on community health, water supply, hydropower, fish spawning and tourism impacts.

“My wetland pond has dried up, my well has gone dry, my lawn has turned brown, the trees are stressed and dropping acorns,” Jamison said, rattling off examples of various reports that help the experts. “It doesn’t matter exactly what magnitude of impact. Any kind of impacts that are driven by drought are all weighed.”

At the end, you can type in any additional comments and upload photos.

HOW THAT HELPS

The color of your backyard on the next week’s map isn’t just going to change because you made a submission. Conditions can vary from lawn to lawn and farm to farm, even in the same town or neighborhood.

“That’s one of the most unique things about drought,” Jamison said. “If we have a snowstorm with 8 inches, the impacts are relatively uniform across much of the area. With a drought … they’re going to vary, and that’s just natural.”

What can catch experts’ eyes are common reports that actually go against what the data is saying.

“If we believe, for example, it’s not a very significant drought, but then we start to see reports of ‘wells are going dry,’ ‘ponds are drying up,’ ‘crops are failing,’” Jamison said, “those kinds of things really can help be the checks and balances or the gut check on what we’re processing and evaluating.

“We don’t have people literally walking the area to make these designations,” Jamison added. “We have to rely on the tools in our arsenal, and then the reports that we get from people in the field.”