The questions of scale, limit, and areal extent are central points for any drought assessment effort. Drought indices, such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), are assisting to demarcate drought characteristics and spatial extent. The current approach utilizes the E-OBS gridded dataset's hydro-climatic parameters (precipitation, minimum and maximum temperature) for applying SPI and SPEI on a Pan-European scale for a detail drought assessment during the 1969–2018 period. The two indices are estimated for the 6 and 12-month scales. In this effort, drought is defined as an event that has index value less than minus 1.5 for at least three consecutive months. Based on this, drought characteristics (frequency, duration, and severity) are derived. The results are displayed in 5-year windows and they are also assessed against independently recorded droughts as occurred. Overall, it may be reported that there has been little change in drought characteristics over the past 50 years in Europe. Furthermore, given the variety of climatic locales on a continental level, the 6 and 12-month time scales for both indices may offer an improvement on drought critical areas identification, threshold definitions, and comparability.

规模，极限和面积的问题是任何干旱评估工作的重点。干旱指数，例如标准化降水指数（SPI）和标准化降水蒸散指数（SPEI），正在帮助划定干旱特征和空间范围。目前的方法是利用E-OBS网格数据集的水文气候参数（降水，最低和最高温度）在泛欧洲范围内应用SPI和SPEI，以进行1969-2018年期间的详细干旱评估。估计这两个指数分别为6个月和12个月量表。在这种努力中，干旱被定义为至少连续三个月的指数值小于负1.5的事件。基于此，得出干旱特征（频率，持续时间和严重程度）。结果显示在5年窗口中，并且还针对独立记录的干旱评估了结果。总体而言，据报道，在过去的50年中，欧洲的干旱特征几乎没有变化。此外，鉴于大陆性气候区域的多样性，两个指数的6个月和12个月时间尺度可能会改善干旱关键地区的识别，阈值定义和可比性。