Guatemala Subnational Rainfall: Dekadal Indicators and CHIRPS Forecasts

A source of dekadal rainfall indicators for Guatemala's subnational administrative units, produced by the World Food Programme (WFP). It integrates CHIRPS satellite imagery with CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts to track 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month precipitation trends as of March 2026.

Use Cases

• Drought monitoring using the rainfall anomaly percentage (rfq) to detect significant deviations from historical norms
• Agricultural season tracking by comparing 3-month rolling rainfall (r3h) against long-term averages (r3h_avg)
• Climate risk assessment by filtering the type column to analyze historical final observations versus recent forecasts

Strengths

• Includes long-term averages for 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month periods to establish historical baselines
• Uses standardized Pcode references for subnational administrative units to ensure interoperability
• Provides data quality metadata via the n_pixels column indicating spatial input density

Limitations

• Satellite-derived CHIRPS data may deviate from local ground-based rain gauge measurements
• 10-day temporal aggregation (dekads) masks daily precipitation extremes and flash flood events

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) using CHIRPS v2 and CHIRPS-GEFS data

Collection Method

Aggregation of Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation satellite imagery and insitu station data

Freshness

Updated nine times per month following a specific cycle of forecasts, preliminary updates, and final observations.

Geography

Guatemala (subnational level)