Climatology of rainfall from Atlantic hurricanes in the USA from radar data

Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Climatology in the USA
Data sources (see references): NEXRAD level III data, hourly precipitation; IBtracs best track data; University of Colorado extended best track data
Available as NetCDF files and Matlab structure

Classification as TC precipitation criteria: within radius of outermost closed isobar of a TC at a given time

Scope: 100km radius around corresponding radar station

Dealing with radar outages: up to 2h gap - interpolation of precipitation, larger gaps - rescaling of frequency with fraction of available data (see formulas)

Available variables per radar station:

Location: name [ ], coordinates [°N, °W]

Grid: lat [°N], lon [°E]

Frequency rescaling: re_freq [ ]

Available variables per event:

Storm identifiers: name [ ], year [a]

Storm total precipitation

Area distribution: Ptot [kg/m2], gridded (0.1x0.1°)

Area average: Ptot_av [kg/m2]

Area maximum within 0.5x0.5°: Ptot_max [kg/m2]

Annual exceedance frequency: f(Ptot_max) [a^-1]

Relevant formulas:

re_freq = total duration of storm exposure / duration of viable measurements
f (Ptot_max) = (number of events exceeding Ptot_max / length of observation) * re_freq

Matlab structure:

Level 1: TCP_climatology

Level 2: station variables -> station_event_data leads to event variables

Level 3: event variables -> Ptot leads to spatially gridded precipitation

Level 4: Ptot-grid