IEM Daily Feature
Friday, 15 November 2013
Friday, 15 November 2013
Accumulating Precip
Posted: 15 Nov 2013 05:37 AM
This delightfully complex plot is an attempt to illustrate the changing seasonal contribution
of yearly precipitation. Each column in the chart represents that year's worth of
precipitation. The plot is normalized so the accumulated precipitation for that year is
expressed in percent total of that local year. The color ramp provides breaks at the 20, 40,
60, and 80 the percent. For these four levels, a linear regression fit is shown with the slope
of that line presented at the top in units of days per century. With me so far? :) So the
question is what is the interpretation of having three of the lines with a negative slope and
only the 40% line with a positive slope? One explanation could be that the relative
contribution of precipitation during May and early June is increasing relative to the rest of
the year. Rephrasing, more of our yearly precipitation is falling during this time period.
Having this period (within first half of the year) as relatively wetter also shifts the yearly
distribution to an earlier date, which is likely the cause for the three lines having negative
slopes.
Voting:
Good = 100
Bad = 14
Abstain = 7
Tags: precip climatechange
Voting:
Good = 100
Bad = 14
Abstain = 7
Tags: precip climatechange