For the past three years, severe drought has persisted across a large area of Central and Southwest Asia, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. By some estimates, this is currently the largest region of severe drought in the world and a grave humanitarian crisis.

This website provides a survey of the available climate information on this drought and humanitarian crisis. Our goal is to be sufficiently detailed for drought mitigation and planning purposes, but sufficiently non-technical that climate expertise is not necessary to interpret the information. We consider four aspects of relevant climate information: the general climate of the region and current conditions, the drought-related societal impacts, the seasonal forecast, and ongoing research.

IRI has also published a Special Report "The Drought and Humanitarian Crisis In Centeral and Southwest Asia: A Climate Perspective" on the research on the severity of the drought in Central and Southwest Asia and possible mechnisms for it.

    Climate Analysis and Monitoring
        * When and where does it rain and snow in the region?
        * How severe is the drought?
        * What data is available and how reliable is it?
    Climate Impacts
    Ongoing Research
        * What is causing the drought?
        * Is El Nino involved?
        * Is Global Warming involved?
        * Can more skillful forecasting tools be developed?

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