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One of our critical issues is population increase, water and food security crisis, and climate change, causing an escalation in the intensity and frequency of weather and climate events, further affecting sustainable food production systems (Calicioglu et al., 2019; Gomez-Zavaglia et al., 2020). As is the case in many world regions, agriculture responds intensely to weather conditions, particularly precipitation, and is exceedingly vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events (Qu et al., 2019; Shi et al., 2020). The costliest disaster affecting ecosystems, natural habitats, agricultural systems, and urban environments is drought (Jiao et al., 2016; P. Wang et al., 2017), involving all climatic zones worldwide (Hao et al., 2020; Lai et al., 2019). Drought has also been seen as a natural disaster resulting from a climatic-induced anomaly of considerably reduced water availability over a specific time (Li et al., 2019). Droughts can prompt the shortage of subsurface and surface water resources, usually causing water supply, water quality, agriculture, ecosystem, and economic problems (Murdoch et al., 2000; Shrestha et al., 2020; Ward et al., 2006). Studies have revealed the presence of negative dependence between temperature and precipitation summer in the U.S. and Europe as an indication of dry and hot summer and a high likelihood of compound droughts and hot extremes (Han & Singh, 2020; Hao et al., 2020; Kong et al., 2020; Vicente-Serrano et al., 2020). Precipitation decreases and temperature increases result in a rise in demand for atmospheric moisture frequently linked with drought. (Haile et al., 2020; Vicente-Serrano et al., 2020). Confirmation from observation and modeling show that the soil moisture-temperature feedback is the primary driver of the negative dependence (García-García et al., 2020; Hao et al., 2020; Nicolai-Shaw et al., 2017; Y. Yang et al., 2020).
This extreme climatic phenomenon has widespread impacts, affecting several communities and people when compared to other natural hazards worldwide (D. Wilhite, 2000) with enormous spatial and temporal scales and causes severe damage to socio-economic activities, ecosystems, and humanity (Kundu et al., 2020; Li et al., 2019; Lin et al., 2017; Meehl et al., 2000). As a consequence of climate change, these droughts are expected to intensify in severity and frequency (Li et al., 2019). Prolonged drought disturbs economic, agricultural activities, and river systems and complicates ecological resources management (Harou et al., 2010; Kingwell et al., 2020; Martin et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2020). Recent findings have shown that the severity of several 21st-century droughts has surpassed the rigor of historical drought events (Martin et al., 2020). The current extreme drought events in the United States include the 2011 to 2016 California drought and the 2000 to 2015 drought in the Colorado River basin (DeLonay et al., 2009; Lisboa et al., 2020; Mehta et al., 2011; Y. Yang et al., 2020). In the United States and especially in the Western and mid-western parts of the country, drought has been frequent, affecting food supply. Therefore, it is imperative to monitor and predict water supply that could result in food production in the United States' agricultural hub to help policymakers plan sustainable land management and development. Absent from most investigations is the Midcontinent United states covering the mid-west, central and the great plains and parts of the south considered the “land of farms,” an essentially agricultural region in the United States.