Africa Standardized Precipitation Index: Multi-Scale Drought GeoTIFFs

The African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) provides this geospatial data containing Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values for the African continent. It features multiple time-scales including 1, 3, 6, and 12-month intervals to monitor meteorological drought conditions as of March 2026. The data quantifies precipitation as a standardized deviation from long-term probability distributions.

Use Cases

• Monitoring immediate soil moisture deficits using the 1-month SPI raster layer
• Evaluating long-term hydrological stress and groundwater recharge through the 12-month SPI layer
• Comparing drought severity across diverse African regions using the normalized index scale

Strengths

• Includes four distinct time-scales (1, 3, 6, 12-month) for varied drought impact analysis
• Standardized GEOTIFF format ensures compatibility with major GIS software
• Normalized values allow for direct comparison between diverse climatic zones

Limitations

• Spatial resolution of the raster cells is not specified
• Requires GIS software for visualization and analysis
• No tabular metadata provided for individual raster layers

Provenance

Source

African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD)

Collection Method

Sensor-based precipitation observations processed through probability distribution functions

Freshness

Updated as of March 2026.

Geography

Africa