After hearing from many of you, we are extending the deadline to submit your apps for the Drought Code Sprint to Wednesday, October 24 at 5 p.m. ET.

Do you have any questions about our data or would you like to learn more about our drought assistance in general? Let us know, we’d love to help as you start coding!

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Some tools we’d love to see include apps that provide “one-click” access to the nearest USDA service centers and available drought programs; county-level drought disaster designations and program eligibility; information on Federal assistance available based on location and sector; types of loans or refinance options available with a handy repayment calculator and eligibility requirements; drought maps; and localized weather outlooks.  These are just a few of our ideas but we’re confident that you have even better ones—so get coding!

To get started, check out these publicly available data sets in the Natural Hazards Data Community on Safety.Data.gov and on the USDA drought website:

• USDA Service Center Locator
• USDA Secretarial County Disaster Designations
• Monthly Crop Production Reports
• Weekly Crop Progress and Condition Reports
• Hay Stocks
• National Integrated Drought Information System

• National Water and Climate Center data including SNOwpack TELemetry Network (SNOTEL) and Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN)

We encourage developers to use other freely available resources on safety.data.gov or the USDA website as well—including Agriculture Weather and Drought Outlook blog posts and Drought Assistance Programs and Information sites—and any other data resources that would be helpful to those affected by the drought.

Read the original blog post launching the code sprint and visit usda.gov/drought for more information on how USDA and other federal agencies are taking steps to help farmers, ranchers, and small businesses wrestling with this crisis.