Niger Subnational Rainfall Indicators and Forecasts by Dekad

A source of dekadal rainfall indicators for Niger's subnational administrative units, produced by the World Food Programme using CHIRPS satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts. It tracks 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall aggregations alongside long-term averages and percentage anomalies. Data is updated multiple times per month to transition from initial forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought conditions by analyzing the 3-month rainfall anomaly percentage (r3q)
• Predicting agricultural water availability using the 10-day rainfall forecast (rfh)
• Comparing current seasonal performance against historical norms using the r1h_avg and r3h_avg columns

Strengths

• Includes 9 distinct rainfall and anomaly indicators per administrative unit
• Integrates CHIRPS-GEFS short-term forecasts for predictive analysis
• Uses WFP Pcode references for easy joining with food security and humanitarian datasets

Limitations

• Satellite-derived estimates may deviate from local ground-truth rain gauge measurements
• Temporal resolution is limited to 10-day dekads rather than daily totals

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) via Climate Hazards Center

Collection Method

Satellite imagery (CHIRPS v2) blended with in-situ station data and GEFS forecasts

Freshness

Updated six times per month with a cycle of initial forecasts, updated forecasts, preliminary observations, and final products.

Geography

Niger