PAW: Plant available water, it represents the amount of water available to plants in the root zone, often expressed in mm, inches, km³, or acre-feet.
FAW: Fraction of plant available water, often expressed as a value between 0 and 1.
What the map shows: Each map shows the fraction of plant available water in the top 50 cm of soil across Kansas, at 1 km resolution, updated daily. 0 is the wilting point (plants can no longer extract any water) and 1 is field capacity (a full profile). Each map represents the soil moisture conditions as of 6 AM CST on its date.
How it's made: A daily soil water balance is driven by PRISM rainfall and a seasonal drying rate calibrated from the Kansas Mesonet, run on soil limits from USDA-SSURGO soil texture, and adjusted toward the same stations each day. Station markers (toggle above) show each station's reading on the same 0–1 scale.