Kenya Subnational Rainfall: Dekadal CHIRPS Anomalies and Forecasts

WFP provides dekadal rainfall indicators for Kenya's subnational administrative units derived from CHIRPS v2 satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts. The data includes 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall totals and anomalies updated six times per month. Records are current as of March 2026.

Use Cases

• Drought monitoring using the 3-month rainfall anomaly percentage (r3q) to identify precipitation deficits
• Agricultural planning by comparing current 10-day rainfall (rfh) against the long-term average (rfh_avg)
• Flood risk assessment by analyzing the 1-month rolling aggregation (r1h) alongside the type status

Strengths

• 9 distinct rainfall indicators including rolling averages and anomalies
• High update frequency with six publication dates per month
• Standardized geographic referencing using WFP Pcodes

Limitations

• Satellite-derived estimates (CHIRPS) may deviate from local ground-station measurements
• Variable pixel counts (n_pixels) across administrative units may affect data precision in smaller regions

Provenance

Source

WFP - World Food Programme

Collection Method

Satellite imagery (CHIRPS v2) and short-term forecasts (CHIRPS-GEFS) aggregated by administrative units.

Freshness

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

Geography

Kenya