what are you looking for exactly? depending on the topic of interest, there are different 'definitions' of drought. I think Niemeyer 2008 is a nice paper to read if you want an overview of this variability.
During the last years, the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index has been shown one of the best indicators of drought derived from meteorological measurements. Vicente-Serrano has written sevarl papers about that (see also attachment).
If you are interested in using soil measurements to study drought effects, you should have a look at Granier et al 2007, and to my own letter about the data needed for this (Vicca et al 2012).
I may be able to help you more if you make the question a bit more specific...