Kiribati: Subnational Dekadal Rainfall and Anomalies for Administrative Units

Dekadal rainfall indicators for Kiribati administrative units provided by the World Food Programme, utilizing CHIRPS v2 satellite imagery and GEFS forecasts. The data tracks precipitation depth, rolling averages, and percentage anomalies across subnational regions identified by WFP Pcodes. Updates occur six times per month to provide a continuous transition from short-term forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Drought monitoring using the rfq column to identify percentage deviations from historical rainfall norms
• Agricultural water availability modeling by comparing r3h (3-month rolling aggregation) with r3h_avg (long-term average)
• Disaster preparedness scheduling by filtering the type column for upcoming 10-day rainfall forecasts

Strengths

• Nine distinct rainfall indicators including rolling 1-month and 3-month aggregations
• Standardized subnational mapping using WFP Pcode references for administrative units
• Inclusion of n_pixels metadata to quantify the satellite data density for each aggregate

Limitations

• Satellite-derived CHIRPS data may lack the precision of ground-based rain gauges in specific island microclimates
• Temporal inconsistency during the month as records transition from forecast to preliminary to final status

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) via Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS)

Collection Method

Aggregation of satellite imagery and in-situ station data into subnational administrative units.

Freshness

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

Geography

Kiribati