Data availability and sector‐specific frameworks restrict drought impact quantification in the Intermountain West

As is the case for many semi‐arid regions globally, drought in the Intermountain West of the United States is a recurrent, costly phenomenon that leaves few aspects of human and natural systems untouched. Here, we focus on drought impact data and evaluation challenges across four non‐agricultural sectors: water utilities, forest resources, public health, and recreation and tourism. There are marked commonalities in the way drought indicators—that is, hydrometeorological conditions—are tracked, but considerable differences in how impacts are measured, evaluated, and disseminated. For drought indicator data, researchers and practitioners have a veritable smorgasbord of data at their fingertips. Such data are often spatially and temporally continuous, available at a wide variety of scales, and readily accessible through government‐funded online portals. This is in stark contrast to drought impact data, which are typically collected opportunistically, if at all. These data are thus often limited in spatiotemporal scope and difficult to access relative to drought indicators. Concerningly, even within a given sector, the definition of drought impacts, quantitative or otherwise, can vary considerably, making it difficult to evaluate the true cost of drought. Far from being specific to the Intermountain West, these problems are found in most regions experiencing drought. We suggest such challenges are surmountable through the development of a common drought impact framework based around economic damages and purposeful, continuous, government‐funded drought impact data collection. These tractable changes will allow for a better quantification of drought's true impacts under both present conditions and climate change scenarios in the Intermountain West and beyond. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Value of Water Science of Water > Water Extremes Water and Life > Stresses and Pressures on Ecosystems Drought touches nearly every aspect of life in the semi‐arid Intermountain West, but data availability issues and the lack of a common impact framework obfuscate drought's true costs. We detail these challenges and present potential solutions in the following overview.