Technical Note: Spatial analysis of meteorological drought during the first half of the water year 1392-1393 compared to the same period of the last water year using SPI and PN indexes in Iran

Drought is one of the natural disasters impacting on socio-economic of the society during short, mid and long terms. Continuously monitoring and evaluating of droughts, which are accounted for the main object of the present study, can affectively alleviate drought impacts helping to come up with a drought risk management plan. In this research, the spatial variation of meteorological drought was analyzed for the first half of the hydrological year 1392-1393. Drought indicators used in this study were SPI and PN and their results were compared through the prepared maps. Results indicated that spatial variations of the rainfall have been considerable in some provinces which has led to severe droughts whereas, other provinces have received more precipitation compared to normal situation. In addition to variation of drought intensity, its spatial extension has been changing significantly. In this regard, the drought intensities have been decreasing in North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, Alborz, and Tehran province with regard to the SPI classification namely -2.5