DRC Subnational Rainfall Indicators and Forecasts by Dekad

Rainfall indicators for the Democratic Republic of the Congo are provided at the subnational level, aggregated by WFP administrative units. Produced by the World Food Programme, the data integrates CHIRPS v2 satellite imagery with CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts to track 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month precipitation trends. Updates occur six times per month to transition from forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Assessing drought severity by monitoring the 3-month rainfall anomaly percentage (`r3q`) across specific Pcode units
• Agricultural planning using the 10-day rainfall forecast (`rfh`) and its comparison to the long-term average (`rfh_avg`)
• Climate trend analysis by distinguishing between preliminary and final data products using the `type` column

Strengths

• Standardized administrative mapping using WFP Pcode references for all units
• High temporal resolution with updates provided six times per month
• Includes pixel count metadata (`n_pixels`) to indicate the data density used for each aggregation

Limitations

• Temporal lag exists as final observations are only published mid-month for the prior month's dekads
• Potential for data volatility in the `type` column as forecasts are frequently updated with preliminary and then final values

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP)

Collection Method

Aggregation of CHIRPS v2 satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts.

Freshness

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

Geography

Democratic Republic of the Congo