Choi, Woonsup, Tareghian, Reza, Choi, Jinmu, Hwang, Chul‐sue

International Journal of Climatology

Published date November 25, 2013

Geographically heterogeneous temporal trends of extreme precipitation in Wisconsin, USA during 1950–2006

  • Examines temporal and spatial patterns of extreme precipitation in Wisconsin during 1950–2006
  • Uses daily precipitation data created by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison using spatial interpolation of weather stations data across the state to a grid mesh with a spatial resolution of 8 km
  • Calculates—for extreme precipitation indices—the 99th, 95th, 90th, 85th, and 80th percentiles of daily total precipitation (>1 mm) in a year and the number of days per year with daily precipitation exceeding 10 mm, 20 mm, and 50 mm
  • Conducts the Mann–Kendall test for trend, examined how geographical heterogeneity varied over time, and built quantile regression models for annual summer precipitation
  • Finds the temporal trend of extreme precipitation varied widely across the state
  • Finds the highest percentile index showed an increasing trend over the largest area, whereas indices of less extreme precipitation tended to generally decrease
  • Finds extreme precipitation tended to show more dispersed and skewed spatial patterns than annual total precipitation
  • Finds, overall, that indices related to frequency showed more similar spatial and temporal trends to total precipitation than magnitude indices