Hydro-JULES: Global high-resolution drought datasets from 1981-2022

These are global scale high-resolution drought indices developed from a combination of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration datasets for the Hydro-JULES project. Climate Hazards group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) precipitation estimates, Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) and Bristol Hourly potential evapotranspiration (hPET) estimates were used. The drought index is developed using the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). These high-resolution global scale drought indices are available from 1981-2022 at a monthly and 5km spatial resolution. The SPEI indices are available from 1-48 months. The datasets provide valuable information for the study and analysis of droughts at much higher resolution from global to local scale. These data were produced for Hydro-Jules (NE/S017380/1) and REACH (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office): Programme Code 201880.