Western U.S. Storms of January 2005

Comparison of Precipitation Products



Robert Rabin1,3 and Beth Clarke1,2

NOAA/NSSL1 ,  CIMMS2, UW-Madison/CIMSS3

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this site is to facilitate inter-comparison of QPE techniques over complex terrain of the western U.S. for a series of winter storms duirng Janaury 2005.  These storms produced considerable snowfall amounts over the Sierra mountains and included unusually heavy snow downwind of the mountains in the Reno, Nevada area.  At present, the following hourly precipitation data are included for comparison:

GAUGE (backround image)

RADAR (radar only)

MS (Multi-Sensor: QPE-SUMS)

AE (Autoestimator)

HE (Hydroestimator)

GMSRA (GOES Multi-Spectral Rainfall Algorithm)

SCAMPR (Self-Calibrating Multivariate Precipitation Retrieval)

RUC2  (RUC 2-hr forecast total precipitation (large scale + convective), 40 km grid version obtained from NOMADS)

In addition,  the following parameters can be plotted:

DEND (temperature at 600 mb favorable for dendritic ice growth (blue/red -10 to -20 C)

PM15 (pressure level (mb) where temperature is favorable for dendritic ice growth (-15 C))

DIV (divergence at 300 mb estimated from mesoscale analysis of GOES water vapor winds).

Available Dates  
07 January 2005
08 January 2005
09 January 2005
10 January 2005
11 January 2005

 

Disclaimer. The products from GOES or other satellites shown here are experimental. These have been generated within a research environment and are not intended to be considered operational. Timeliness, availability, and accuracy are sought but not guaranteed.

Return to CIMSS (UW-Madison) or  NSSL (NOAA/NSSL).
Last update was 16 May 2005. Feedback.