Name: Drought in Guam, August 1 to 31, 2017
Start: 2017-08-01T00:00
End: 2017-08-31T23:59
Location: Guam

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: $100,000
Events: 2

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS GUM wrote it up.

Dry weather prevails across parts of Micronesia. The rainfall has been so light that drought conditions persist across many islands.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Guam wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 31, 6:20 AM UTC, 7 hours 40 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 31, 6:20 AM UTC, 7 hours 40 minutes before

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Tiyan GU
420 PM ChST Mon Jul 31 2017

.Marianas Synopsis...
Partly cloudy skies, isolated showers and gentle to moderate trade
winds prevail across the Marianas. Latest buoy readings show seas
between 3 and 6 feet.

&&

.Discussion...
Only minor changes were made to the inherited forecast this
afternoon. Decreased cloud cover to partly cloudy for tonight.
Mostly cloudy skies are possible at times overnight during
showers. Otherwise, no changes were made, with a moist monsoon
pattern continuing through the week, maintained isolated
thunderstorms through Friday.

&&

.Marine...
Model guidance continues to show a west-northwest swell at around
6 feet through the week. Based on latest buoy observations, the 6
feet does not look too bad, however, the direction is actually
more toward the northwest. As of now, seas are remaining fairly
constant at around 6 feet at the Tanapag buoy, which will keep
surf at around 7 to 8 feet, under high surf criteria. Another
consideration is Super Typhoon Noru. With the intensity much
higher than anticipated, a higher northwest swell is possible
later in the week. If the swell does increase more, a High Surf
Advisory could be needed around Wednesday or Thursday.

&&

.Eastern Micronesia...
A trade-wind trough or disturbance stretches from just southeast of
Kosrae northeastward across the Marshall Islands. Patchy showers are
between Kosrae and Majuro and Butaritari. Fair weather will remain
over Pohnpei for the near term. The disturbance will move westward
to Kosrae this evening and Pohnpei perhaps Tuesday evening. Pleasant
weather should prevail for most of the region this week, but another
trade-wind disturbance currently east of the Date Line will move
westward and trigger another round of patchy showers for Eastern
Micronesia later this week into the weekend.

&&

.Western Micronesia...
Yap and Koror; Although Super Typhoon Nuro is far north at 23N140E
and is drifting farther away, converging monsoon winds across far
Western Micronesia will produce showers and a few thunderstorms at
times for Yap and Koror during next couple of days. The monsoon flow
is expected to weaken with relatively drier weather developing later
in the week.

Chuuk; Converging southwest to southeast winds focused just west of
Weno will trigger showers and a few thunderstorms at times across
Chuuk State through tonight at least, but gradually drier weather is
expected for the Weno area most of this week.

&&

.GUM WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
GU...None.
Marianas Waters...None.
&&

Kleeschulte/Simpson

Event by event

2 drought. Local standard time, as filed.

Drought, Marshall Islands

When: August 1, 12:00 AM GST to August 31, 11:59 PM GST
Where: Marshall Islands forecast zone
Crop damage: $50,000
Reported by: Official NWS Observations

The Experimental Drought Assessment of the U.S. Drought Monitor showed that Utirik in the northern Marshall Islands remained at long-term exceptional drought (Drought Level 4 of 4)

Wotje worsened to long-term extreme drought (Drought Level 3 of 4).

Rainfall amounts illustrate the dry conditions as Utirik saw only 3.79 inches of rainfall during the month as opposed to the usual 7.41 inches.

Wotje had shown improvement over the last few months, but August rainfall was lower than average with 1.04 inches this month compared to the average August rainfall of 5.20 inches.

Drought, Marshall Islands

When: August 1, 12:00 AM GST to August 31, 11:59 PM GST
Where: Marshall Islands forecast zone
Crop damage: $50,000
Reported by: Official NWS Observations

The Experimental Drought Assessment of the U.S. Drought Monitor showed that Utirik in the northern Marshall Islands remained at long-term exceptional drought (Drought Level 4 of 4)

Wotje worsened to long-term extreme drought (Drought Level 3 of 4).

Rainfall amounts illustrate the dry conditions as Utirik saw only 3.79 inches of rainfall during the month as opposed to the usual 7.41 inches.

Wotje had shown improvement over the last few months, but August rainfall was lower than average with 1.04 inches this month compared to the average August rainfall of 5.20 inches.

What these are

Drought: A drought reaching severe (D2) or worse on the US Drought Monitor, or with notable impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Guam in 2017 Every state in 2017 This day in weather history Warnings in Guam, August 2017

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 712964, 718086.