China Subnational Rainfall: Dekadal Indicators and Forecasts

The World Food Programme (WFP) maintains this collection of dekadal rainfall indicators for China, aggregated by subnational administrative units. It utilizes CHIRPS v2 satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts to provide 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall totals, averages, and anomalies. Data is updated six times per month to transition from forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Drought monitoring by analyzing the rfq rainfall anomaly percentage across subnational units
• Agricultural season tracking using 3-month rolling aggregations (r3h) compared to long-term averages (r3h_avg)
• Short-term weather preparedness using the 10-day forecast values when the type column is set to forecast

Strengths

• 9 distinct rainfall indicators including anomalies and long-term averages
• Standardized WFP Pcode references for administrative units
• Frequent updates with six publication cycles per month

Limitations

• Aggregation to administrative units loses sub-unit spatial variance
• Initial records are forecasts or preliminary and may change in the 'final' product release

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) via CHIRPS and CHIRPS-GEFS

Collection Method

Satellite imagery (CHIRPS v2) and in-situ station data combined with GEFS forecasts

Freshness

Updated six times per month on the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, and 26th.

Geography

China