This FTP directory contains National Integrated Drought Information System data.  The files included are:

/shapefiles:  North American Drought Monitor shapefiles - ESRI ArcGIS 10.1 compliant. These data are linked to from www.drought.gov/nadm/content/shapefiles and are compressed using the .zip convention.

/CDI:  Cumulative Drought Index

/geojson:  GeoJSON files used for interactive maps on Drought.gov





The directory and all contents are accessible via web browser:
http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/nidis/
Or via direct ftp:
Ftp to ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov
login as ftp or as anonymous
password is your email address
cd to /pub/data/nidis
get or mget files as needed--in ascii or bin mode (bin required for any non-ascii file)

To unzip the files you must have appropriate third party zip compression software. You may need to download and install zip compression software of your choosing.

Any inquiries, contact nidis.questions@noaa.gov, or 828-271-4800.

Steve Ansari
U.S. Drought Portal Manager
Climate Monitoring Branch
NOAA's National Climatic Data Center