Missouri Leverages Partnerships to Boost Soil Moisture Data for Early Drought and Flood Warnings

The state of Missouri is working to better track water from the sky into the soil, in the hopes that expanded soil moisture data across the state can help decision-makers better predict, prepare for, and track both drought and flood events. 

Following damaging flooding in 2019, a multi-state, multi-agency working group with representatives from Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska identified the importance of improved soil moisture data in the region. Because soils act as a reservoir for water storage, soil moisture data can illuminate how water moves through a landscape, ultimately serving as an early warning indicator of droughts and floods. Soil type, texture, and landcover can vary widely across individual states, so having soil moisture sensors in multiple locations that capture different landscapes helps ensure modeled maps most accurately represent on-the-ground conditions. 

Interest in soil moisture information is increasing across the United States in the wake of multiple record-breaking fires, droughts, and floods around the country. Working with the USDA and other partners, NIDIS is leading the effort to establish the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN): a multi-agency, multi-institutional initiative to integrate soil moisture data from around the country and to capitalize on its transformative potential for a wide range of applications across sectors of the economy.

New soil moisture sensor installations have become common in the last five years. In the Upper Missouri River Basin, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with state mesonets to install or augment more than 500 stations to improve soil moisture monitoring. Elsewhere, the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia are adding soil moisture sensors to existing and new stations, while the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is working to broaden soil moisture measurements in forested landscapes around the country. These are just a few examples of the broad soil moisture work taking place nationwide. The NCSMMN is supporting these projects in sharing information and learning from one another’s approaches through virtual seminars, guidance documents, and development of tools and methodologies for applications of soil moisture data. 

In Missouri, soil moisture data have been collected at federal Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) and U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) sites since 2001 and 2007, respectively, but following the 2019 flood (and 2018 severe drought), Missouri’s 2020 Missouri Water Resources Plan and the 2023 Missouri Drought Mitigation and Response Plan called for expansion of soil moisture data collection across the state.

Based on these planning documents and the recommendations of the inter-state working group, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) launched the Missouri Soil Monitoring Project as part of their new Missouri Hydrology Information Center. In partnership with the University of Missouri’s Missouri Mesonet and the U.S. Forest Service Mark Twain National Forest’s Remote Access Weather Stations (RAWS), this project will add soil moisture sensors to 35+ existing stations across Missouri and build up to 10 new mesonet stations in areas that currently have data gaps.

“This is part of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’s effort to support and partner with other state and federal agencies in flood and drought monitoring,” said Amanda Wolfgeher, Environmental Program Specialist at the Missouri DNR and project lead.

The goal of the project is to improve drought monitoring and flood forecasting by creating a clearer picture of the water cycle as a whole for a greater number of Missouri’s varied landscapes. 

“Soil moisture’s really going to help us connect rainfall to hydrology and what happens to that rain after it hits the ground,” explained Missouri State Climatologist Zachary Leasor, who is closely involved in the soil moisture build out.

The Missouri DNR used state funds received via the American Rescue Plan Act to purchase sensors. Missouri DNR is also helping with sensor installation, collecting information about soil type and texture, and collaborating on outreach to communicate the importance of these data to the public. Meanwhile, the University of Missouri is providing data management, developing near-real-time, high-resolution, gridded soil moisture maps, and considering research applications for flood forecasting and drought tracking. The project will also create a platform that will connect stakeholders and the public to useful information to better understand floods, droughts, and soil moisture.

Asked what they would most like to share with other new networks, Leasor and Wolfgeher both emphasized the importance of partnerships. 

“By having all this expertise and ability to consult people, we are a lot more confident in the way to do [this work],” Leasor said. 

Wolfgeher added that collaborations with other entities in the state allowed the project to move forward in a way no single entity could achieve by themselves. She also noted the importance of the NCSMMN community. One of the first resources she found for guidance on soil moisture monitoring was the 2021 NCSMMN Strategic Plan. She also remembered attending an NCSMMN-hosted session on soil moisture at the 2023 American Association of State Climatologists meeting when she was first starting on the work: 

“Hearing from the greater community what their barriers were, what their challenges were, and the different components I needed to think about… I feel like the community has been there for me from the beginning,” Wolfgeher said. 

The NCSMMN is a multi-agency partnership, led by NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), USFS, and other partners. Its mission is to “advance high-quality, nationwide soil moisture information for the public good.” If you are interested in joining the NCSMMN, consider signing up for the NCSMMN newsletter, and register for the upcoming 2025 National Soil Moisture Workshop in June.