Quantitative Precipitation Estimation of Extremes in CONUS With Radar Data

Molter, Edward M., Collins, William D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4463-9848 and Risser, Mark D. (2021) Quantitative Precipitation Estimation of Extremes in CONUS With Radar Data. Geophysical Research Letters, 48 (16). ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Constructing an accurate, continental, in-situ-based, kilometer-scale, long-term record of the precipitation field and its spatiotemporal changes remains a significant challenge. Here, we determine the extreme-value behavior of the NEXRAD Stage IV radar-based quantitative precipitation estimate. We find that the climatology of 5-year daily return values in the contiguous United States East of the Rocky Mountains shows only slight variability on spatial scales smaller than (Formula presented.) 100 km. In light of this finding, we test whether rain-gauge-only daily precipitation data sets can produce accurate extreme-value behavior at spatial scales finer than the spacing between gauges. We find that the 5-year daily return values are accurate at locations far from rain gauges only if the interpolation between gauges is carried out appropriately for extremes. Precipitation statistics derived from in-situ rain gauge data are therefore of sufficient spatial resolution to faithfully capture daily extremes over much of the eastern United States.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data Availability Statement: Data sets for this research are available at the following locations: The NEXRAD Stage IV data product is described in Lin (2011) and can be accessed online at https://data.eol.ucar.edu/dataset/21.093. The GHCN-Daily data are described in Menne et al. (2012) and can be accessed online at https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.ncdc:C00861. The CNRFC gridded QPE product can be accessed online at https://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/arc_search.php. The PRISM NORM81 climatology is described in Daly et al. (2015) and can be accessed online at http://www.prism.oregonstate.edu/recent/
Uncontrolled Keywords:	geophysics,general earth and planetary sciences ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1908
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	10 Jul 2026 15:34
Last Modified:	12 Jul 2026 05:38
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103822
DOI:	10.1029/2021GL094697

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