DRY_NAM: A multifaceted annual drought feature dataset for the North American Monsoon region during 1960–2024 based on a daily soil water content model

The DRY_NAM dataset provides a comprehensive characterization of annual drought facets across the North American Monsoon (NAM) region from 1960 to 2024. The dataset is based on a new methodological analytical framework applied to daily soil water content time series. It includes 44 annual drought features such as onset, offset, duration, peak, drying and wetting rates, and severity, for both the pre- and post-monsoon drought periods at 0.1° spatial resolution. The dataset is derived from a daily Soil Water Content, simulated by a generic solar-radiation driven water budget model and evaluated against a soil water probes network and the Standardized Precipitation-Evaporation Index (SPEI-1). The 40,825 CSV files of the dataset are named in the format “DF_DRY_NAM_XXX,YYY”, where “XXX” is the X (longitude) coordinate, and “YYY” the Y (latitude) coordinate of the pixel’s center. Each file contains 44 annual drought features as columns (names, units and descriptions of the drought features in the metadate file), and 65 rows as years from 1960 to 2024. NA values are used to indicate any missing or non-existing drought feature.