Several meteorological drought indices have been used in the past to assess drought severity. Most of the indices use monthly precipitation data (e.g. SPI) and in some cases additionally monthly potential evapotranspiration data (e.g. RDI). The objective of this paper is to present the new Reconnaissance Drought Index and its requirements and also to specify the requirements of a meteorological monitoring network aiming at providing data for the calculation of such indices. From the methodologies examined the one based on geostatistical tools such as the kriging method was tailored and successfully used for the purpose of drought monitoring.