Haiti Subnational Rainfall: Dekadal Indicators and Anomalies via CHIRPS

Supplying dekadal rainfall indicators for Haiti's subnational administrative units, produced by the World Food Programme (WFP) using CHIRPS v2 and CHIRPS-GEFS satellite imagery. It tracks 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall totals, averages, and anomalies across WFP-standardized administrative boundaries. The data is updated six times per month to transition from short-term forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought conditions by analyzing the rainfall anomaly percentage (rfq) relative to long-term averages
• Predicting agricultural water availability using the 3-month rolling aggregation (r3h) and its associated anomaly (r3q)
• Validating satellite-derived precipitation models by comparing the 'type' column status against the number of input pixels (n_pixels)

Strengths

• Includes 9 distinct rainfall indicators including rolling aggregations and long-term averages
• High temporal resolution with updates issued every 5-6 days
• Standardized geographic referencing using WFP Pcodes for administrative units

Limitations

• Relies on satellite-derived CHIRPS data which may exhibit biases in Haiti's complex mountainous terrain compared to ground stations
• Data in the 'type' column labeled as 'forecast' or 'preliminary' is subject to significant revision once 'final' products are released mid-month

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) using CHIRPS v2 and CHIRPS-GEFS from Climate Hazards Center

Collection Method

Aggregated from satellite imagery and in-situ station data (CHIRPS) and short-term rainfall forecasts (GEFS)

Freshness

Updated six times per month on a fixed schedule (1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, and 26th).

Geography

Haiti