Mauritania Subnational Rainfall: Dekadal Indicators and Anomalies

Dekadal rainfall indicators for Mauritania's subnational administrative units produced by the World Food Programme (WFP). It integrates CHIRPS v2 satellite-station data with CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts to track precipitation depth and anomalies. Records are updated nine times per month to transition from predictive forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Assessing drought severity using the 3-month rainfall anomaly percentage (`r3q`) at the subnational level
• Predicting crop yields based on 10-day rainfall forecasts (`rfh` where `type` is forecast)
• Analyzing regional climate shifts by comparing current rainfall (`rfh`) against long-term averages (`rfh_avg`) over time

Strengths

• Integrates 9 distinct rainfall indicators including rolling aggregations and anomalies
• Uses CHIRPS-GEFS for short-term forecasting alongside historical CHIRPS v2 data
• Standardized subnational aggregation using WFP Pcode references
• High update frequency with nine publication points per month

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is limited to administrative unit aggregates rather than raw pixel data
• Satellite-derived precipitation estimates may contain biases compared to direct rain gauge measurements
• Historical analysis requires filtering the `type` column to exclude preliminary or forecast values

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) via CHIRPS v2 and CHIRPS-GEFS

Collection Method

Satellite imagery combined with in-situ station data and short-term forecasts

Freshness

Updated nine times per month following a specific dekadal cycle.

Geography

Mauritania