Observing and Monitoring Drought
Abstract

Abstract Author: Wesley Ebisuzaki and Muthuvel Chelliah

Abstract Title: An examination of the trend of precipitation characteristics over the continental United States

Abstract: Three widely used precipitation characteristics are the mean, extreme precipitation events and droughts. Rather than the unusual floods or droughts, we will use a characteristic that can apply to more normal situations, the probability of "X" mm of precipitation in "N" days. For example, this statistic can be used differentiate between the following scenarios: (1) four rain events of 1/2" evenly spaced in a month, (2) four consecutive days of 1/2" in a month and (3) single day of 2" in a month. These three scenarios have the same total rainfall but different agricultural consequences.

We will be looking at the "X" mm of precipitation in "N" days statistics for the continental United States using the CPC gridded precipitation analyses. We will describe the climatology of this statistic and and whether the statistic shows any trends.