Accumulated Precipitation represents the amount of total precipitation in mm (solid and/or liquid) which has been recorded over a given period of time. Products are produced for the following timeframes: Agricultural Year, Growing Season, Winter Season, as well as rolling products for 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180, 270, 365, 730, 1095, 1460 and 1825 days.

Departure from Average Precipitation represents the accumulated precipitation value for a location, subtracted by the long term average value. The long term average value is defined as the average amount over the 1981 – 2010 period. A negative value indicates that the location has received less than the normal amount of precipitation (mm) for that timeframe. A positive value indicates that the location has received more than the normal amount of precipitation (mm). Products are produced for the following timeframes: Agricultural Year, Growing Season, Winter Season as well as rolling products for 30, 60, 90, 180, 270, 365, 730, 1095, 1460 and 1825 days.

Difference from normal soil moisture is the modelled amount of plant available water (mm) in the root zone of the soil, minus the average amount that has historically been available on that day. This value is intended to provide users with a representation of conditions above or below normal and by the amount of water (mm). Values are computed using the Versatile Soil Moisture Budget (VSMB)

The Blended Index (BI) is a model which employs multiple potential indicators of drought and excess moisture, such as the Palmer drought index, rolling precipitation amounts and soil moisture, and combines them into a weighted, normalized value between 0 and 100. The inputs and weights used in this model are subject to change periodically as it is optimized to best represent extent, duration and severity of impactful weather conditions. The blended index is deployed as two variations; short term (st) focusing on 1 to 3 months, and long term (lt) focusing on 6 months to 5 years.

Dry spell periods are defined as the number of days (April 1 – October 31) where daily precipitation is less than 0.5 mm. This is not an accumulation of precipitation, simply a count of days. Dry spell products are only generated during the Growing Season, April 1 through October 31.

The term "Palmer Drought Index" has been used collectively to represent multiple indices. This index is simply a water balance model which analyzes precipitation and temperature, and used as a tool to measure meteorological and hydrological drought across space and time. All versions of the index uses the Versatile Soil Moisture Budget to model the movement of water within the system, and a daily Priestly-Taylor model to estimate evapotranspiration. The Palmer Drought Index (PDI) uses monthly temperature and precipitation data to calculate a simple soil water balance. The index is a relative measure that typically ranges from -4 (extremely dry) to +4 (extremely wet) and represents how soil moisture availability differs from that expected for a given place and time of year. The PDI includes a "memory" component that considers past conditions and persistence of soil moisture surplus or deficit. The Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI) is a specific version of the PDI that accounts for longer-term drought that reduces surface and groundwater supply.

Percent of normal soil moisture is the modelled amount of plant available water (mm) in the root zone of the soil, divided by the average amount that has historically been available on that day. This value is intended to provide users with a representation of conditions above or below normal as a percentage. Values are computed using the Versatile Soil Moisture Budget (VSMB)

The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is computed similarly to the SPI. The main difference is that SPI assesses precipitation variance, while SPEI also considers demand from evapotranspiration which is subtracted from any precipitation accumulation prior to assessment. Unlike the SPI, the SPEI captures the main impact of increased temperatures on water demand.

The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) has been recognized as the most accessible index for quantifying and reporting meteorological drought. On short timescales, the SPI is closely related to soil moisture, while at longer timescales, the SPI can be related to groundwater and reservoir storage. The model uses observed historical precipitation amounts to compute probability distributions which are then normalized using an incomplete gamma function over a range of timescales. The values can be interpreted as the number of standard deviations by which the observed anomaly deviates from the long-term mean. where positive values (greater than zero) result from above average conditions.

Maximum Temperature represents the highest recorded temperature value (°C) at each location for a given time period. Time periods include the previous 24 hours and the previous 7 days from the available date where a climate day starts at 0600UTC.