GPCC Monthly Precipitation: Gridded Gauge-Analysis for Africa

Gridded gauge-analysis precipitation data for Africa provided by the African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) based on GPCC products. It utilizes quality-controlled observations from thousands of global rain gauges to establish a land-surface precipitation baseline for climate monitoring.

Use Cases

• Calculating the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for drought monitoring
• Calibrating satellite-derived rainfall estimates using gauge-analysis as a reference layer
• Retrospective analysis of climatological trends across African sub-regions

Strengths

• Aggregates data from thousands of quality-controlled rain gauges
• Standardized GEOTIFF format for GIS compatibility
• Endorsed by ACMAD as a reference layer for satellite calibration

Limitations

• Accuracy is dependent on local rain gauge density which varies by region
• Land-surface only coverage

Provenance

Source

Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) via ACMAD

Collection Method

Sensor-based collection from rain gauge networks followed by quality-controlled gridded analysis.

Freshness

Updated as of March 2026.

Geography

Africa