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Abstract The Standardized Precipitation Index ( SPI ) is the most widely used index to characterize droughts that are related to precipitation deficiencies. However, the SPI does not always deliver the relevant information for hydrological drought management particularly in snow‐influenced catchments. If precipitation is temporarily stored as snow, then there is a significant difference between meteorological and hydrological drought because the delayed release of melt water to the stream. We introduce an extension to the SPI , the Standardized Snow Melt and Rain Index ( SMRI ), that accounts for rain and snow melt deficits, which effectively influence streamflow. The SMRI can be derived without snow data, using temperature and precipitation to model snow. The value of the new index is illustrated for seven Swiss catchments with different degrees of snow influence. In particular for catchments with a larger component of snowmelt in runoff generation, the SMRI was found to be a worthwhile complementary index to the SPI to characterize streamflow droughts.
Staudinger et al. (Tue,) studied this question.