Costa Rica Subnational Rainfall: Dekadal Indicators and Forecasts

WFP-produced dekadal rainfall indicators for Costa Rica aggregated by subnational administrative units. The data integrates CHIRPS version 2 satellite-station imagery with CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts to provide historical, current, and predictive precipitation metrics as of March 2026.

Use Cases

• Monitoring agricultural stress by comparing 3-month rolling rainfall (r3h) to long-term averages (r3h_avg)
• Early warning systems using 10-day rainfall forecasts (rfh) where the type column is 'forecast'
• Climate trend analysis using rainfall anomaly percentages (rfq)

Strengths

• Includes CHIRPS-GEFS short-term rainfall forecasts
• Standardized Pcode references for subnational units
• Provides pixel counts (n_pixels) for aggregation transparency

Limitations

• Aggregated data masks local variance within administrative units
• 10-day temporal resolution may obscure daily extreme events

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP)

Collection Method

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

Freshness

Updated multiple times per month following a specific forecast and observation release cycle.

Geography

Costa Rica