Colombia Subnational Dekadal Rainfall and Forecasts with Anomalies

A source of dekadal rainfall indicators for Colombia's subnational administrative units, derived from CHIRPS satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts by the World Food Programme. It tracks 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month precipitation totals and anomalies alongside long-term averages. Updates occur six times per month to transition data from initial forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought or flood conditions using the rainfall anomaly columns (rfq, r1q, r3q)
• Assessing agricultural season health by comparing current 3-month rolling rainfall (r3h) against the long-term average (r3h_avg)
• Evaluating forecast reliability by comparing records labeled as 'forecast' versus 'final' in the type column

Strengths

• Includes both historical averages and short-term forecasts (CHIRPS-GEFS)
• Uses standardized WFP Pcode references for administrative unit joins
• Provides data status tracking via the type column (forecast, preliminary, or final)

Limitations

• Relies on satellite-derived estimates which may deviate from local ground-based rain gauge measurements
• Temporal resolution is limited to 10-day (dekadal) blocks rather than daily observations

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) using CHIRPS version 2 and CHIRPS-GEFS

Collection Method

Aggregation of satellite-derived precipitation imagery and in-situ station data into administrative units

Freshness

Updated six times per month to provide near real-time forecasts and subsequent final observations.

Geography

Colombia