Characterizing subdiurnal extreme precipitation in the midwestern United States

Abstract

This research establishes a methodology to quantify the characteristics of convective cloud systems that produce subdiurnal extreme precipitation. Subdiurnal extreme precipitation events are identified by examining hourly precipitation data from 48 rain gauges in the midwestern United States during the period 1956- 2005. Time series of precipitation accumulations for 6-h periods are fitted to the generalized Pareto distribution to determine the 10-yr return levels for the stations. An extreme precipitation event is one in which precipitation exceeds the 10-yr return level over a 6-h period. Return levels in the Midwest vary between 54 and 93 mm for 6-h events. Most of the precipitation contributing to these events falls within 1-2 h. Characteristics of the precipitating systems responsible for the extremes are derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction stage II and stage IV multisensor precipitation data. The precipitating systems are treated as objects that are identified using an automated procedure. Characteristics considered include object size and the precipitation mean, variance, and maximum within each object. For example, object sizes vary between 96 and 34 480 km2, suggesting that a wide variety of convective precipitating systems can produce subdiurnal extreme precipitation. © 2010 American Meteorological Society.