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Monitoring of heavy precipitation events

These images show locations where average recurrence intervals for precipitation have been exceeded. These are referred to, for example, as "100-year rainstorms", though this terminology can cause confusion, so a more accurate description is "less than a 1% probability of occurring at a given location in any given year." This is an automated search for the types of events discussed in Schumacher and Johnson (2005, 2006) and Stevenson and Schumacher (2014), using gridded precipitation analyses, as well as updated to use NOAA's Atlas 14 to define the average recurrence intervals. (In the states of Washington and Oregon, Atlas 14 has not yet been updated, so no points are shown.) Archived images from past events when the thresholds have been exceeded are shown below.

Each dataset has been regridded to a 4-km latitude-longitude grid (the same grid used by the PRISM Climate Group) prior to calculating the exceedance points. This allows for a closer "apples-to-apples" comparison between precipitation datasets. The archive of past events is actively under development; if you don't yet see images for a particular dataset/duration, check back soon! Recent data (e.g., within the current year) has not undergone quality control, so use recent maps with caution.


Select dataset: Stage IVMRMSPRISMCONUS404      Current maps  Interactive maps of past events
Select average recurrence interval: 10-year100-year1000-year
Select duration: 72-hour48-hour24-hour6-hour
Select year: 198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Left arrow for previous frame, right arrow for next, space to pause/play; click to open image in new tab. Each event is listed as "mmddhh_e" (2-digit month, 2-digit day, 2-digit hour for end of accumulation period, one digit for the event number on this date).

   
021412_0 040712_0 042212_0 042412_0 050112_0 050312_0 050312_1 050712_0 050812_0 051212_1 052112_0 052712_0 052812_1 060212_1 060312_3 060612_0 060612_2 060612_5 060912_0 060912_1 061612_0 061812_3 061912_1 062012_2 062212_3 062412_0 062412_2 062712_1 070112_0 070412_2 070612_5 070612_7 070812_1 070912_3 070912_4 071012_1 071212_0 071412_0 071512_0 071712_0 071712_2 071812_2 071912_0 072212_1 072312_1 073112_1 080212_1 080212_2 080612_0 080612_1 080812_1 081212_2 081812_0 081812_1 082112_1 082512_3 082612_2 082612_3 082612_4 082712_1 083112_0 090212_1 090612_0 090812_0 090912_1 090912_2 091012_1 091212_1 091812_0 091912_0 092012_0 092112_3 092212_0 092212_1 092412_1 092512_0 092612_0 093012_0 100112_0 100112_1 100312_0 100412_0 100712_0 102612_0 103112_0 111512_0 112012_0 122112_0

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AGS-2337380. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.



DISCLAIMER: The images and data on this site are intended for meteorological education and research purposes and, although they should generally be up to date, are not monitored at all times. Do not use for making decisions where money or lives are at stake. For official forecasts and warnings, visit the National Weather Service.