Dr Paul Fox-Hughes from the Bureau of Meteorology presents results from the Improving land dryness measures and forecasts project as part of this AFAC webinar on 15 December 2020. This research uses the soil moisture defined in numerical weather models, and discuss how it verifies compared to observations of soil moisture and the traditional indices. Paul will also discuss some of the really promising work done towards the end of the project linking soil moisture to fuel moisture content, and where soil moisture calculations are likely to be headed in coming years.