Characteristics of rainfall events in regional climate model simulations for the Czech Republic
Characteristics of rainfall events in an ensemble of 23 regional climate model (RCM) simulations are evaluated against observed data in the Czech Republic for the period 1981–2000. Individual rainfall events are identified using the concept of minimum inter-event time (MIT) and only heavy events (15...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2017-02-01
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| Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Online Access: | http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/21/963/2017/hess-21-963-2017.pdf |
| Summary: | Characteristics of rainfall events in an ensemble of 23 regional climate
model (RCM) simulations are evaluated against observed data in the Czech
Republic for the period 1981–2000. Individual rainfall events are identified
using the concept of minimum inter-event time (MIT) and only heavy events
(15 % of events with the largest event depths) during the warm season
(May–September) are considered. Inasmuch as an RCM grid box represents a
spatial average, the effects of areal averaging of rainfall data on
characteristics of events are investigated using the observed data. Rainfall
events from the RCM simulations are then compared to those from the at-site
and area-average observations. Simulated number of heavy events and seasonal
total precipitation due to heavy events are on average represented relatively
well despite the higher spatial variation compared to observations.
RCM-simulated event depths are comparable to the area-average observations,
while event durations are overestimated and other characteristics related to
rainfall intensity are significantly underestimated. The differences between
RCM-simulated and at-site observed rainfall event characteristics are in
general dominated by the biases of the climate models rather than the
areal-averaging effect. Most of the rainfall event characteristics in the
majority of the RCM simulations show a similar altitude-dependence pattern as
in the observed data. The number of heavy events and seasonal total
precipitation due to heavy events increase with altitude, and this dependence
is captured better by the RCM simulations with higher spatial resolution. |
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| ISSN: | 1027-5606 1607-7938 |