Closing the Latency Gap for Operational Flood Forecasting: 1-km Hourly Gridded Forcing in Germany/Mohannazade_2026_HESS

Description
This archive contains the research data for the precipitation component (interpolated with Ordinary Kriging) for the manuscript Closing the Latency Gap for Operational Flood Forecasting: Near-Real-Time 1-km Hourly Gridded Forcing in Germany.

Background:
High-resolution, near-real-time precipitation fields are essential for operational flood forecasting in Germany, especially in rapidly responding catchments. However, existing high-quality gridded products are often not available with the low latency required for real-time hydrological applications.

Methods:
The archived dataset consists of 1 km hourly gridded precipitation fields for Germany derived from station observations using ordinary kriging (OK). The dataset was developed for near-real-time hydrometeorological applications and evaluated using station-based validation, comparison with HYRAS daily precipitation and RADOLAN hourly precipitation, and analyses of major flood-producing events including Ahr 2021 and Fils 2024.

Results and scope:
The evaluation shows that ordinary kriging provides robust performance for generating near-real-time hourly precipitation fields and can represent extreme rainfall patterns better than simpler interpolation methods in some flood-event conditions. This archive publishes precipitation data only and does not include the temperature component of the study.

Contents:
The archive includes the gridded hourly precipitation data and supporting materials required to document their generation and evaluation.

Keywords: precipitation, flood forecasting, ordinary kriging, Germany, hourly gridded data, hydrometeorology, operational hydrology