Lao PDR Subnational Rainfall Indicators and CHIRPS-GEFS Forecasts

Dekadal rainfall indicators for Lao People's Democratic Republic aggregated by subnational administrative units, derived from CHIRPS version 2 and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts. Created by the World Food Programme, the data includes 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall totals, anomalies, and long-term averages updated through March 2026.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought severity by analyzing the rainfall anomaly percentage (rfq) relative to long-term averages
• Predicting agricultural water availability using the 3-month rolling aggregation (r3h) and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts
• Spatial analysis of precipitation trends across Lao PDR using WFP Pcode administrative identifiers

Strengths

• Includes 9 distinct rainfall indicators covering both short-term and seasonal windows
• Uses standardized WFP Pcode references for administrative unit joins
• Provides data maturity tracking via the 'type' column to distinguish forecasts from observations

Limitations

• Satellite-derived CHIRPS data may exhibit bias compared to local ground-based rain gauges
• Statistical reliability may be lower for smaller administrative units with low n_pixels counts

Provenance

Source

WFP - World Food Programme

Collection Method

Aggregated satellite imagery (CHIRPS) and in-situ station data

Freshness

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

Geography

Lao People's Democratic Republic