FIFE: Daily Rainfall from Konza LTER Rain Gauges

42 rain gauge stations within the Konza LTER portion of the FIFE site recorded daily precipitation values. The dataset is a composite, with 12 stations providing daily data from April 1982 through December 1989, and 30 stations providing 30-minute data converted to daily totals from May to October 1987. High temperatures, humidity, and software issues caused intermittent data loss, but the recovered data were of high quality for observing rain cells.

Use Cases

• Analyzing daily precipitation trends based on data from 42 rain gauge stations.
• Studying rain cell movement and spatial distribution using the network of gauges.
• Validating hydrological or climate models with historical, ground-truthed rainfall data.
• Assessing data quality and sensor reliability under high-temperature, high-humidity field conditions.

Strengths

• Composite data from two independent collection efforts (LTER and Princeton University) across 42 stations.
• Covers a multi-year period from April 1982 through December 1989.
• Described as high-quality data sufficient for observing rain cells despite some losses.

Limitations

• Data completeness is partial; at any time, data from only about 20 of the 30 Princeton stations were recovered.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata between platforms (1989 vs. 2026).
• Column names and exact row counts are unspecified, limiting immediate analysis.

Provenance

Source

Composite of data collected by Konza LTER staff and Princeton University group, processed by FIS staff.

Collection Method

Ground-based collection from rain gauge stations, with 30-minute data aggregated to daily totals.

Time Range

April 1982 to December 1989.

Freshness

Last updated metadata conflicts: one source lists 1989-12-30, another lists 2026-04-10.

Geography

Northwest quadrant of the FIFE site within the Konza LTER, Kansas, USA.